Mainly Mental Vol. 1 is devoted entirely to billet work, and is more or less a complete textbook of the craft, dealing exhaustively and in order with 'The Steal, 'The Read,' 'The Spiel,' 'Subsidiary Techniques,' and finally 'Effect'. It's 100 pages of this, small type, and this brings us to the reason, these books are so seldom read; Boarde is a brainy, erudite writer, and takes his subject very seriously. The text is therefore, sometimes, a bit dry. Boarde is perfectly aware of this: Volume 1 concludes thusly: "It must be concluded that the above descriptions have been tersely written. All the required information is there. It remains for the reader to go through them with the necessary materials at hand."

 

 

If you're willing to really study these, you'll be richly rewarded.