AS book test go, this has great potential. The trailer is slightly misleading, as it doesn't emphasize the major method taught, inserting a playing card into the book to "bookmark" the page. However, the DVD is thorough and all aspects/handling are taught in detail. Be forewarned, this will require practice and making/handling a gimmick. It is not self-working or, in my opinion, for the beginner. It is an effect that is going to take some practice, both in handling the gimmick and the participants. Don't expect to simply watch the DVD and start performing it. Even skilled mentalists/magicians will require practice to find which method and effect they are most comfortable performing. Properly done, it can be a stunner. Valentine is obviously a master at performing it. If your comfortable handling/switching billets and have the necessary boldness to control the participants, your audience will be astounded. The effect can be significantly enhanced using a gimmick wallet, almost any loadable or Himber wallet will do. I took off one star because the trailer is slightly misleading.

Here's what I love about this book test.

1) You can genuinely use pretty much any book they give you. Walk into any bookstore, library or living room and let them give you a book. So the book is fully examinable. You could even do it with foreign language books if you wanted to.

2) They can genuinely choose any page they want.

3) You can predict what word they will pick in any way you'd like (e.g. have it written on the ball of paper tossed around by the audience to choose them).

4) They'll never be able to accuse you of peaking at the word. They take the book away the second it's closed.

5) If you want to, you can have it be that they pick one word and then either change their mind or a second spectator picks a totally different word from the same book.

This thing is sheer genius.

This is by far the best book test ever made I have not been a fan of book tests until now, Thanks Steve for making it fun!!

This is absolute genius and I will use this over and over again. You can make everything you need in 10 minutes and it's fun. You can do a double prediction on stage...one person selects a book, one looks at a word, another looks at the page number and the last opens the prediction envelope and reveals you're totally correct.

THIS WILL AMAZE your audience and it's very, very easy to do.

Wow! For simplicity, flexibility and impact, "Booked" will be hard to beat. I've performed at least a dozen different book/magazine tests over the years and I must admit this is the BEST in real-world situations. Steve does a terrific job of showing how to make gaffs for ANY situation (including being given a book in another language!) and his incredible versions of the "pegasus page" theme are breathtaking. My favorite is a an "extreme" handling where the page is selected and signed - moments later to be seen as MISSING (torn out) from the book and the SIGNED page revealed in a wallet, under a glass, wherever you choose. Thank you Steve for sharing all your thinking with the magic/mentalism community. The book test/pegasus page routine will most likely become the finale to my parlor act. Best money I've spent on a book test in a LONG time.

I was hesitant to purchase "Booked" at first. Some were saying it was nothing new. However, I found "Booked" to be a valuable mentalism tool with an ingenious gimmick. Steve Valentine does a very thorough job of going through the creation of the gimmick and its variations. He gives complete explanations of the various routines as well as valuable advice on how to handle things that could happen during a performance. You can tell he has completely "worked" each of his "Booked" routines for years and years. The more I watched the DVD, the more I realized this was an amazing book test that would make audiences jaws drop to the floor. "Booked" is definitely a book test that I will use.

This is a great book test. Steve gives SO much information...maybe too much, but all of it is useful and appreciated. I've already made up several gimmicks with plans for more. I cannot believe how thorough he is. You can tell that this is something he uses in real performances...to make money from paid gigs and not something (like so many others) that he has dumped on the market in the hopes of making some bucks and never does himself. This is a quality effect

This is absolutely a "brilliant" trick. So glad he gave up his secret and so glad I bought it. It is really a GREAT effect...............it seems impossible....... it really blows people away. Thanks for making it available.

The only other book test I have like is 'bookless book test" by Collin McLeod. Generally I disliked the whole concept of a book tests. Steve Valentine, provides such an excellent DVD he has helped me to justify a book test! Brilliant! I have not liked others and do not perform them because I want a really "impromptu? feel.

This is the book test... Walk into a book store, challenge anyone to grab a book. You not only read their mind, but push it to amazing levels with an impossible prediction.

Killer mentalism. This method makes me actually like the book test for the first time. Thank you Steve Valentine.

Cheers,
Bob

I love this concept and will often use it.

However I can't say this is the best book test. It depends on your performing style. The thing that I don't want to do when I do book test is looking at the book even though I don't try to see the word but people may think you are trying to glimpse it. When you use Booked you need to look at the book about 1 or 2 seconds. Of course you don't glimpse the page but you need to do it. You can cover this as you move around the stage or any kind of misdirection you can use to distract people's focus little bit. But generally distracting people's attention is not a good thing in mentalism. Because the moment when people see the freely selected page is the most important part of the performance in book test. You want to be seen as clean as possible at that moment. In my opinion it is not that clean in that moment as other book tests are.

Therefore to maximize this concept you need to add more effects just like the demo shows. This concept can make prediction and teleportation effects also. So, you reveal the word they chose and you show prediction paper that is written same word and the selected page is magically travelled and stuck on outside of a window or anywhere you wanted. The window thing is the killer. I just tried it yesterday and the reaction was so good.

It has 3 different effects in one performance so it may confuse people's mind and it feels more like magic or trick than pure mentalism. However I urge you to try this because you can do this with a BORROWED book. Not only book test, I've never seen any tricks or mental effects with a borrowed book this much good.


If you want to be seen as real mentalist with this I don't recommend this. There is Tru Test on Penguin. That is the thing you may want to try it if you don't have it.