Wordy and over-crafted, but still enjoyable

I got the feeling whilst reading this book that Derren Brown had spent an awful lot of time with a dictionary choosing EXACTLY the words he wanted to use in every single complex sentence. His writing style felt over-crafted - I could never really relax into the narrative. He is, by definition of his profession, someone who is extremely observant and I haven't heard anyone recall past experiences in such minute detail. In the first section of the book, that is very impressive, but I must admit that I nearly gave up in the last chapters. The reader must be prepared to scythe through acres of dense verbiage (he's got me doing it now...) And the final sentence... baffling. Which, I guess, for a conjourer would be his main objective - to confound his audience. Do I feel I know more about him as a person that I did before reading this? No. But I do now know a lot about the internal monologue of a skilled conjourer and, as such, it's an interesting read. He is a good audiobook narrator - which is always a bonus.

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Pair of slippers

Somehow I missed everything that is Derren Brown, and I’m significantly older than him. I found his book “Happy” , and enjoyed it so much that I thought I’d try this. I loved it from the first moment.

My goodness, I don’t think I have ever enjoyed a book so much. It’s so comfortable, Like an old pair of slippers. The performance is great and I believe Derren puts so much of him self into it. The meandering story was, to me, a stream of consciousness from a very nice person who obviously thinks fruitfully about his life and the world around him. It’s just such fun I can’t wait to read whatever else he has out there. I also learnt some big words too!

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Surprisingly Lovable Listen

Thoroughly enjoyed this. He is such an interesting guy, loved the tangents! Set around a single magic trick.

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Fantastically whimsical.

You won't take anything away from this as you would from Tricks of the Mind but you will be taken on a fantastic journey presented as the meandering reminiscent thoughts of the author as he presents his magic trick to a group.

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More please

Such an articulate and unusual autobiography of sorts. Love Derren.., only wish it had been twice as long. It flew by!

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Confused!

I have been listening to this book for the last hour and waiting for something to happen, but I have been so far left feeling a bit cheated. The book is what it says it is(so far) a look at Derren?s working life, from when he started as a table conjuror in Bristol. But there is no set pattern to this book and I have found that it jumps from one subject to another very quickly, this has left me confused.
I am a big fan of Derren?s work and have all of his other work on book, so I was looking forward to more of an understanding of him the person, but all I appear to know is when not to do a magic trick in a restaurant.
Good Title because it explains what this book is, but not much else, sorry Derren

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4 people found this helpful

Derren brown in a slightly odd light...

I'm a huge fan of Derren's, having watched the vast majority of his television programmes and specials, so was understandably very excited to see this new book. Part of Derren's appeal is the fact that he rarely fully discloses in detail his thoughts and personality, and this probably should have rang alarm bells before pressing play.

This isn't an autobiography, but an insight into Derren's mind. Although there were elements of Derren's personality which I identified with, the persistent nature in which he rattles of his often bizarre infatuations (breaking the foil seal on a new tube of toothpaste using the end of the cap, etc, etc) is funny at first but seems to go on and on throughout the book.

Derren uses a card trick he performed in a restaurant as a sub-story throughout the whole book, and although cleverly executed, the event itself doesn't quite feel interesting enough to describe in so much detail. It does however remind the listener how talented he is as a performer and how he picks up small cues about individuals to a remarkably accurate degree.

At times this was an interesting and enjoyable book, and Derren makes exceptional use of the English Language, but I still can't help feeling that I liked him more before listening to this...

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1 person found this helpful

Sweet, honest and entertaining

Not what I was expecting - I hadn't paid much attention to the blurb as I just find Derren"s work fascinating, but this mixture of autobiography and magical explainery kept me quiet for 3 days. Excellent for falling asleep to as well, but I always had to wind back to my last remembered point, and ended up finishing it while cleaning. Perfect!

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The tricky second book....

So, if you've read his first book - please do not buy this expecting more of the same, it's VERY different.

But, is it worth splashing the cash?

If you are a diehard fan then obviously, as the man himself narrates it and there is a glimpse (but no more) into the world of Derren.

However the main bugbear is that's it's more of 'The World According To' and depending on how much you like the chap's ideas and vocab and general personality you're going to identify with his words or think it pretentious.

The first hour or so is arduous. If you manage to settle into it then it flows increasingly better, and there are a few laugh out loud moments.

So caveat emptor. If you're a fan of the tricky little trickster then give it a go. If you're not, then I doubt if this will win you round.

Oh and I doubt if Derren would ever read this, but considering the section about feedback and review - I truly apologise if I have hurt your feelings, you must have worked very hard on the book and I liked most of it. And I bought it. So you got the money anyway.

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A well narrated, worthwhile and compelling tale

There is an art to telling a story in an engaging and likable way, and Derren has that quality in spades. Whilst not an autobiography in the strictest sense, it presents a cross section of his life, dipping in here and there across time to show what made him the conjuror he is today. If you’re not a fan of his, then you are just as unlikely to be reading this as you are to buy the audio book in the first place, but having recently seen him live, I was keen to find out more.

If you are not a fan of verbose sentence structures then Deren’s tendency towards the sesquipedalian may begin to annoy you, but for me it offered a greater depth and colour to his tales.

Overall a worthwhile and compelling tale, which was well narrated by the author.

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