What is John Zubrzycki reading?

Featured at Writers Read: John Zubrzycki, author of Empire of Enchantment: The Story of Indian Magic.

His entry begins:

I've just finished Ravi Agrawal's India Connected: How the Smartphone is Transforming the World’s Largest Democracy. What's great about this book is not only its breezy style, but the fact that most people in the world don't realise just how transformative India's digital revolution is. In no time at all India went from being a country where having a landline was the preserve of the privileged few to having 700 million people using cell phones. India leapfrogged the PC and laptop eras and now the vast majority of internet traffic goes through smartphones. Why used old-fashioned voice calls and email when you can communicate via Whatsapp? Why use credit cards when its easier to use mobile wallet apps, as over a hundred million Indians already do? Aggarwal starts off by following...[read on]

About Empire of Enchantment, from the publisher:

India's association with magicians goes back thousands of years. Conjurors and illusionists dazzled the courts of Hindu maharajas and Mughal emperors. As British dominion spread over the subcontinent, such wonder-workers became synonymous with India. Western magicians appropriated Indian attire, tricks and stage names; switching their turbans for top hats, Indian jugglers fought back and earned their grudging respect.

This book tells the extraordinary story of how Indian magic descended from the realm of the gods to become part of daily ritual and popular entertainment across the globe. Recounting tales of levitating Brahmins, resurrections, prophesying monkeys and "the most famous trick never performed," Empire of Enchantment vividly charts Indian magic's epic journey from street to the stage.

This heavily illustrated book tells the extraordinary, untold story of how Indian magic descended from the realm of the gods to become part of daily ritual and popular entertainment across the globe. Drawing on ancient religious texts, early travelers' accounts, colonial records, modern visual sources, and magicians' own testimony, Empire of Enchantment is a vibrant narrative of India's magical traditions, from Vedic times to the present day.

Visit John Zubrzycki's website.

Writers Read: John Zubrzycki.

--Marshal Zeringue