The Big Con

The Big Con

by

David W. Maurer

            When I go to the book stores I usually know what I'm after but I always take a look at the bargain rack. The Big Con was one of those books that I just happened to find at too good a price to pass up. I love just anything to do with con men (I'm a right dab hand at the three shell game myself) so at ~$8 I just had to have this book. So I bought it and I read it and here I am telling you about it.

            So as I understand this book was first published in 1941 and its author is not an ex-cop or detective, nor an ex-criminal or con man. Its author was a linguist fascinated by underworld slang. This linguist found and befriended all sort of underworld types to learn about the jargon they used. He did this and published a book about it but it seems that the argot of the con was so great and fascinating that it deserved its own book. I imagine that getting the underworld types to talk was no mean feat but he did it and even managed to keep the secrets he promised to keep by having his personal collection of notes destroyed upon his death. If you cannot tell I find the history of the book and its author just as fascinating as the book itself.

            This book has two introductions being a second edition printed nearly half a century after the first, the first introduction tells how the book came to be and about the author and reminds us that $50,000 in 1940 is like $500,000 today which is important to remember. Some of the touches (con jargon for total money made from any one running of the con) are impressive even before you do the mental math. $300,000 is a lot even today but with inflation that $300,000 is the same as $3,000,000 today.

            There are a lot of con games out there but for the most part the book only cares about “the big cons” which is basically defined as any con in which the mark is sent on the send (the sucker is sent to go get more money than he has on him) this is the opposite of “the short con” where the mark is only taken for all the money he has on him. Obviously the money made from each big con is significantly higher than that made from the short con. While I'm sure there are loads of big cons out there the book only mentioned three that were the popular when it was written; The Wire, The Rag, and The Pay-Off. Two of them were cons about horse betting and the other was about the stock market.

            All three con's went the same basic way a con called a Roper search the countryside looking for a good mark. A good mark being someone with larceny in his blood (meaning someone that wants to get something for nothing) and a hefty bankroll to lose. When a roper finds a good mark he befriends him and takes him to where the insideman (a con that runs the show that loses the mark his money) is running his big store. There they put on a little show that fans the larceny in his blood (some marks have more blood larceny than others, one anecdote from the book tells of a mark that suggested killing the insideman and taking his money, needless to say the mark was cleaned out extra hard) they fire the mark up till he is ready to turn all he owns into cash to play the game. After that they clean him out and  get rid of him in a myriad of ways.

            While that all seems like a lot of information it actually only constitutes one chapter while I won't get as in depth with the contents of the other, you can read it your self for that, I am going to give a brief description of the other chapters. First up is 'The Mark' this chapter talks about what else, the mark. What a con looks for in one and such. Next is 'The Mob' which talks about the various specific jobs in a con and who fills them. Then comes a chapter entitled 'Birds of a feather' in which the book goes over con men themselves, shared characteristics and what con men say makes a good con man. My favorite part of the book is probably in this chapter where it talks about the cons that con men pull on other cons and criminals. After that we have 'Tin-Mittens' this chapter is about people that make money off the con but are not part of the con itself such as policemen who get a cut to keep the marks from taking any complaints to trial. Then comes a fun chapter called 'Short-con games' where there are explained eight short cons a con man my run if he is low on funds. Almost all require two con men to play though. Next to last and one of the most enjoyable of the chapters is 'The Con Man and His Lingo' which is like a bad guy glossary. The last chapter an amusing when you consider it was wrote ~50 years ago is 'Looking Toward the Future' which is about three pages long and closes out the book.

            Over all I really enjoyed this, it was a fun easy read about a subject I love. About the most trouble I had was that sometimes slang is used that while common in 1940 is no longer in modern use and I can only wonder at what was meant. I always worry that I'm going too hard or too soft on grading a book but for me this one totally gets a 10 out of 10.

About Bizarre Magic

About Bizarre Magic
P. Craig Browning

What can I say about a free book. Well its thirty-eight pages which makes it longer that a lot of other e-books I've gotten. This book was written for magicians that are interested in a style of performing known as Bizarre Magic. Generally speaking Bizarre Magic is bit on the macabre side a bit darker, and very much more theatrical than other forms of magic. This book proved to contain a good introduction to the realm of Bizarre Magic, but it was clear to me that the purpose of this book was to wet the readers apatite so as to convince them to buy one of the authors more expensive works. My biggest problem with this book would have to be the near constant typos. These are not your letter out of place typos these are the I hit spell check and put the wrong word in sort of typos. It made the book rather arduous to read.

I'm going to have to give this book a 6/10 for the typos.

I haven't posted much.

I haven't posted much which suck I totally meant to post more but what I've mostly been reading is books about doing performance magic. And Well I don't read the whole book I read the bit I find applicable so usually I don't read enough of a book to make a call. Sorry, I will try to do better in the future, provide life doesn't get in the way.

The Art of Seduction

The Art of Seduction

By Robert Greene

How would I describe the writing style of Robert Greene in this book. Like a history buff with a distaste for the mordern. I recently read recommendation for this book that called his style as “amoral, dispassionate tone” I disagree I feel the Mr. Greene understands that while morals are fluid and change from culture to culture and man to man, human nature is a solid and definable force. He acknowledges that some people may view things a certain way but if you want to achieve your goals there is a way it needs to be done.

As for the way it is written, like the 50^th Law each chapter follows the same pattern established in the beginning of the book. Each chapter begins with kind of a descriptive overview and here is where we first see text whose outline form some sort of simple shape like a circle, oval, or triangle. Next we introduce to the concept of the chapter with a bit of information out of the history books. Such as some exploits from Casanova. After that we are presented with a “Key to seduction” Where the general idea presented in the preceding part is explained and elaborated upon so we can employ the lesson in our own lives. So once we have have the idea explained we are given a symbol with which to identify the concept. Again instead of the block text we are used to in book the writing appears in a simple shape. For example in the chapter on Rakes the symbol is fire and the explanation of how that relates to Rakes forms a half circle. Finally each chapter closes with a warning of how applying its concept can bite you in the arse. Now is a good time to point out what I found to be both interesting and annoying about this book. At the start of each chapter in the margins you find quotes and excerpts from old books on the main subject of the chapter. I like them because they were fun and help explain the idea of the chapter but I was annoyed because I found them awkward. O could not read them in tandem with the chapter and would have to go back and re read them after I finished the main section.

Favorite Quote: This desire for a double of the other sex that resembles us absolutely while still being other, for a magical creature who is ourself while possessing the advantage, over all our imaginings, of an autonomous existence. . . .

—ROBERT MUSIL, QUOTED IN DENIS DE ROUGEMONT, LOVE DECLARED,  TRANSLATED BY RICHARD HOWARD

Score 8/10 Good book but awkward to read at times.

The Case of Charles Dexter Ward

The Case of Charles Dexter Ward

H.P. Lovecraft

Reviewing H.P. Lovecraft presents me with a challenge. His works are horror mystery. So the problem is how do I review it without giving anything away. Well I made the mistake of looking up something about it that contained spoilers but I was still surprised by the end. So for the most part I really enjoyed this story except for one part. While establishing the love of history and architecture by the title character the author describes his home town in crazy exact detail. I was slow and boring part of reading to me personally. But other than that portion of the text I found the pacing of the text to be very good. I really like the progression of the story the suspense create. I will say this Lovecraft seems to have mastered making the readers imaginations do the heavy lifting. So Charles Dexter Ward is a happy go lucky youth in 1920’s Rhode Island. During his many walks around town and visits to the library to look at old books he discovers a link to an ancestor that had been whipped from local history books. And that’s when his life takes a turn for the weird. Eventually he finds a picture of his ancestor and it looks almost exactly like him. This fuels his research that leads him to secrets man is not meant to know. Over all I recommend this story to all I know who read.

Score 10/10

You Might Be A Zombie

You Might Be a Zombie
and other bad news
by the editors of  Cracked.com

If you have a Facebook and a good amount of friends I'm sure you've seen a link to Cracked.com pop up once or twice a week. It will be link to some funny list of weird facts written with a slightly immature (read guy centered) sense of humor. For example "Five ways Abraham Lincoln was a badass mutant" Well this book is the book form of that website. With chapter titles like; 'Five stories of Jesus' childhood that were cut from the bible (To avoid an NC-117 Rating)', 'Four Great women buried by their boobs', and 'Five beloved U.S. Presidents the modern media would never let into the White House'. That last one actually annoyed me because it bothers me how little a persons message has to do with them getting elected. What if Barack Obama wasn't elected because of his message of but instead because he was younger, taller, better looking, and had a more pleasant speaking voice than McCain? (I personally didn't vote for either but am bothered that a good guy with a good plan would lose simply be cause he wasn't camera friendly.)

I very much enjoyed this book but I did skip quit a few parts that didn't grab my attention and I felt some of their facts may have been a bit off but what ever.

Score: 8/10 due to the fact that I skipped parts.

The 50th Law

The 50th Law
By
50 Cent &
Robert Greene

Going into the book I was already familiar somewhat with the works of Robert Greene. I had already had a look at his other works The 48 laws of power and The art of Seduction. I would describe his works as the application of social psychology with historical examples. As for 50 Cent I knew he was some sort of rapper but I was not familiar with his works or his career.

The book itself looks like a small bible. The cover is a black plastic like material the words are stamped in gold on the cover. The edged of the pages are rough and have a gold tint. The only artwork on the cover is three pictures of a sword (the same sword 3 times once on each cover and again on the spine). The only words other than the title and authors appears on the back cover at the top it says in Latin "nihil timendum est" and below the picture of a sword in English "fear nothing" It is in my opinion supposed to be a bible of power.

The contents of the book is split into ten chapters, each being an important aspect of the struggle for power. Every chapter starts with story of a struggle 50 Cent faced on his path to power. Then there is a quote by 50 Cent followed by an explanation of how being fearless in this area leads to success. Next there is a few examples using historical figure illustrating various way the concept of the chapter was successfully used. Lastly there is a breakdown of how the core concept of the chapter is negatively viewed by modern society. Each chapter ends with historical quote the person most quoted being Machiavelli,

I like the book myself and highly recommended it to anyone with ambition. Its well written and easy to read, if I had to put it on a school based reading level I'd say an 8th grader would have no trouble reading and understanding this book. It didn't take me that long to read it maybe 6 distraction free hours. As for re-readability I think its they type of book you read every few years not because you want to but to refresh its messages in your mind.

Favorite Quote: There is no knowledge that is not Power.- 50 Cent

Score 8/10 (It just feels like an 8)