Okay I'd like to start studying some of the Spanish Maestros but I'm not sure which book to start with. Structural conception, 5 Points, Mnumonica? Any thoughts?

Mnemonica by Juan Tamariz

You can start memorizing the deck while you parse through the book, and pickup other reading material.

I've heard great things about 5 Points. I've been thinking of picking it up myself.

Five points is a fine book, but very, very short and mostly about communication and presentation. Not so much about tricks or sleights.

Sonata has some magnificent effects in it, and is probably more 'fun' to read than Mnemonica (which is also, of course, excellent).

But Tamariz himself has nothing but praise for Ascanio, and the Magic of Ascanio series of books is great.

Basically, you can't go wrong. But every one of the books I mentioned has its own different 'style' and so one may 'speak' to you more than another.

Thanks for all the advice everyone. Sounds like I'll probably need to get them all eventually.

the structural conception of magic has foundational ideas on sleight of hand that will make every trick you do more deceptive. i haven' read the whole thing yet admittedly but what i have read is very good. 5 points is also very good but you have to consciously work to add what he says into your stuff because its all very pretty subtle. So you need to pay close attention to really work that stuff in.

I haven't read mneumonica but thats very specific. If you want to learn memorized deck then get that. But if you ask me, structural conception of magic is your best value.

Thanks. I think I'll probably go with Structural Conception then. God knows I have so many sleights and routines that I should probably perfect before jumping into Mnemonica. That sounds like the sort of thing I could really use to help enhance the magic I already perform.