Dice Mysteries by Steve Drury
As I’m recuperating from the side effects of the Moderna vaccine, I thought I’d take some time out to share about one of my all time favourite reads from my magic/ mentalism library. Dice Mysteries by Steve Drury (co-founder of PSYCRETS British Society of Mystery Entertainers) comes in a gorgeous hardcopy and the delightful tome is 583 pages long. Read on to find out why I absolutely LOVE this book and consider it to be one of the best investments you can truly make.
Description: Dice Mysteries by Steve Drury
Dice Mysteries is a study into the world of dice, aimed at the mystery performer. A hardbound, dust-jacket covered book – it runs at over 580 pages. It initially delves into its journey from the shaman to the layman, then through history into its roles in society, religion and science, including various cultural and indigenous perspectives. Many types of dice are reviewed, alongside their varied uses, from reading systems to gambling and cheating plus performance applications and routines. Author / Editor Steve Drury’s own ideas are included throughout, plus there are varied supporting contributions and a foreword by Ronald J. Dayton
“Steve Drury has done it again and created a huge, impressive 500+ page tome covering one topic – this time, dice! Or, to be more specific, it covers dice and items similar to dice, such as the classic Mental Logs or Color Vision. It also delves into a variety of ways to do readings with dice. Like the other volumes on topics such as feathers and keys, this one provides, this book brings together classic routines and ideas with dice alongside newer ideas from more contemporary performers. Included is material by Richard Webster, Richard Osterlind, Docc Hilford, Lior Manor, David Berglas, Kenton Knepper, Neal Scryer, and more. I like dice routines because the props are easy to carry and provide a nice variety. For those who are like me, and are always on the lookout for interesting things to do with these dice, then this book is certainly going to be one of the most worthwhile investments you make this year.” — Jheff Poncher, Marketplace of the Mind.
Let’s talk USP (unique selling points)
With all lovely books like these, I always like to remove the dust cover while reading so my copy doesn’t get all creased up or smudgy from oils. Sharp eyed readers may be wondering about the pair of black and white dice I’ve laid on top of it. Resting next to a 24mm wide fengshui coin, these are actually yin yang dice with trigrams on each of their eight sides. They’re cast together to form a single gua (hexagram in English) of six broken and unbroken lines to be used when you consult the I Ching oracle.
Right off the bat, I must commend Steve Drury for the tremendous research and passionate effort that’s been evidently thrown into this massive project. Dice Mysteries is a very well put together book and I’m MIGHTY IMPRESSED with all the stellar work he’s done on this heavy tome. Steve jests this big book could be utilised as a door stopper and you sure could, but trust me, you really won’t… because Dice Mysteries will easily become one of your favourite reads.
Dice Mysteries does a complete 360 focus on dice; the rich history of these random number generators, their intriguing myth and legend from all religions stemming from all pockets of the world, the various types as well as their fascinating evolutions, their very clever uses in gambling and cheating as well as magick and divination… besides using them as modern day props for some pretty diabolical magic tricks which are also featured.
Several well respected mentalists and mystery performers have contributed their thoughts and ideas to this book, spanning well over hundreds of thought provoking pages which the reader should take time to slowly enjoy and relish over a few nights like a fine glass of wine. But just to name a few contributors, we have folks like David Berglas, Lior Manor, Mark Chandue, Richard Osterlind, Pablo Amira, Docc Hilford, T.C. Tahoe, Kenton Knepper, Steve Cook, Neal Scryer, Richard Webster, Sudo and much more.
As you can imagine from the impressive line up above, the content you’re getting is top notch. And I’m glad that Steve spared no expense with the print quality too. Published via Lulu, the hardcover book is evidently of top production quality. A masterpiece well worth its price tag of 95 quid.
TLDR: Dice Mysteries by Steve Drury
This is a book that goes way beyond simply teaching tricks with dice. Sure it does that, and exceedingly well as we have very brilliant contributors sharing very brilliant contributions so I’m confident you’d be inspired to include dice in your routine once you’ve read it cover to cover… but I’ve also found the first part of Dice Mysteries to be a really solid read and if you share just a tiny bit of knowledge gleaned about the fascinating history and mythology and uses of this seemingly innocent everyday object that people from every corner of the world know about, you’d be undoubtedly the most interesting guest at the table.
Well worth the investment, Dice Mysteries by Steve Drury comes with my fullest recommendations and is a definite must have for your bookshelf. Pick up your copy here. For updates and related info follow@dicemysteries on Facebook 🙂
