In A Nutshell

I own more magic books than any person reasonably needs. I look upon my shelves with a small tinge of shame, and a certain degree of overwhelem. I know there's untold treasures, lifetimes worth of great magic, waiting to be discovered... but I'm not quite sure where to look.

I'm also at the point where I'm forgetting what I once knew. I wish I had more organized records from my past reading to go back to those great ideas which provided inspiration in the moment.

MagicLibrary.org is intended as a research tool to help you get more magic out of your books. To better organize your personal research, and perhaps share your path for others to follow.

Who do you think you are?

Hi, I'm Ryan Pilling. I'm a magician from Calgary, in the middle of Canada, where I don't really get to rub elbows with too many other magicians. I've relied primarily on magic books for my education, and those pages are my own personal Magic Castle.

I first had the idea for this project (and acquired the domain name) back in 2013, and it's had three or four false starts to get to this point. Now my web programming skills have risen to meet the challenge and overcome previous hurdles.

To learn more about me and my magic you can head on over to my magic blog; Tips & Tricks for Magicians.

How is this different?

I owe a huge thanks to other public projects which have catalogued magic books. They've been a very helpful tool in my research. My personal go-to sources are MagicRef.net and The Conjuring Archive. Both are brilliant, long-running, monumental works and gifts to the magic community.

I'm not looking to step on any toes, but rather contribute my passion and technical skill to add something to the mix. Those projects are personal to Doug and Denis, respectively, as private librarians. They are sharing the result of their research. However, I am unable to interact with it. I can't keep my own private notes, make my own connections, or catalogue my books which are not in their personal collection.

MagicLibrary.org aims to embrace the spirit of Wikipedia to create a community-run resource where everyone gets to benefit from the work of many contributions, with a growing foundation for your own research.

How can I get involved?

First, start collecting and reading! Register to create your account, then browse the library and find the books you own. Let it be an inspiration to pull it off the shelf and dig in. Then, keep notes of what you find. Maybe make a personal collection of "tricks I want to work on" and add things to the list.

Inevitably you will find a book that's not yet in our catalogue. You can add it! Or flesh out the contents of your favourite books. I've found that doing this has already lead me to discover overlooked gems in a book I thought I knew.

This is all about showing some love to your books, and the database will grow as a side effect of your effort.

If you have an idea or desire to get more involved, please do get in touch. I'm open to contributions of any kind to create a great resource for the magic community.