Book and Movie Reports by Ed

Book report: Sleights of Mind, by Stephen L. Macknik, Susana Martinez-Conde, and Sandra Blakeslee I love magic tricks. Even when I know exactly how the trick is done, I’m amazed by the skill of the magician. If you think about it, the whole idea of magic tricks is fascinating. We KNOW that they are not doing what they pretend they are doing. We KNOW that they can’t get the jack of clubs to rise to the top of a deck of cards, or pull a rabbit out of an empty hat, or make a person vanish. But we still watch, we’re still fooled, and we still enjoy it. How is this possible? We are watching what they do the entire time. Why don’t we SEE what they are really doing? Why do we believe that something impossible has just happened? This book answers those questions, and many more. The first two authors are researchers and experts in human perception and neural processing, especially about illusions. The third author is a professional writer, who I believe is largely responsible for the very