Magic Tricks

I have been into magic for fourteen years (I am nineteen). Up until I was nine, I tried to learn all I could about everything to do with the subject. It was only at nine that I found card magic an interesting subject to solely focus on, and that is what I have done for the last ten years.
It wasn't until I was fifteen that I picked up an old VHS called 'Cardshark'. Watching it I was amazed at the amount of good quality card magic that this 'Darwin Ortiz' was presenting. A few years later I bought his latest book 'Lessons in Card Mastery' and was again amazed at the amount of good quality card magic. I have made it an oath to not study any other magician unless they are Darwin Ortiz, his students (Michael Vincent, Jason Ladayne, Antonio Zuccarro), or his friends (David Roth, Jim Swain and Simon Aronson).
I bought his first two (the hardest to get) books ('At the Card table' and 'Cardshark') before receiving the final magic book, 'Scams and Fantasies' on my eighteenth. Then I strived to get all of his other materials. That included his two theory books ('Strong Magic' and 'Designing Miracles', which I recommend buying), his ten DVD collection (which is on this website) and his lectures. I bought the International Magic ones and his 'At The Table' Live Lecture.

This Penguin Live lecture was the last one I needed to buy and after buying it, I was not impressed. Just like all of his older material, Darwin Ortiz presents a wealth of good strong magic (all from 'Lessons In Card Mastery'). Even thought I knew every effect it was nice to see some subtleties and his presentation for the various effects. The question and answer parts on theory were also very inspiring and followed the trail of thought of his two theory books.
One thing that I would say to criticise this lecture is that most of the material requires the use of difficult sleights (such as riffle stacking, strip-out shuffling, advanced work on the faro) but the effects presented should aspire everyone to pick up a resource on the subject and get learning. If they don't then they do not appreciate the usefulness of the sleights. In saying that, the difficult sleights appear in only one or two effects.
If you were just starting to learn magic and want to focus on cards I would suggest the following bookshelf (following my top ten books and top ten dvd's...)
Book One: At The Card Table
Book Two: Cardshark
Book Three: Scams and Fantasies
Book Four: Lessons In Card Mastery
Book Five: Strong Magic
Book Six: Designing Miracles
Book Seven: Jim Swain's trilogy of books.
Book Eight: Aronson Quadrilogy (Aronson)
Book Nine: Finding The Centre (Zuccarro)
Book Ten: Confident Deceptions (Ladayne)

DVD One: At The Card Table (Three Volumes)
DVD Two: Cardshark (Three Volumes)
DVD Three: Scams and Fantasies (Four Volumes)
DVD Four: International Magic Lecture (Darwin Ortiz)
DVD Five: Darwin Ortiz At The Table Live Lecture
DVD Six: This (Just record it onto a disc)
DVD Seven: Confident Deceptions (Four Volumes)
DVD Eight: Michael Vincent Classic Magic Series (Four Volumes)
DVD Nine: Miracles With Cards (Four Volumes) (Swain)
DVD Ten: Aronson's DVD (that I have forgotten the name of).

Ok, so it's not exactly ten books and ten DVD's, but the ten franchise books. As well, leave space for when they add to their collection. Hopefully Darwin will write a fifth book.