In 1977, magician Ricky Jay wrote the definitive book on card throwing–Cards As Weapons–with such chapters as "Cards and the Martial Arts" and "Self-Defense." From the Smithsonian article about Jay that I blogged a few days ago:
"According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Jay has thrown a card farther, higher and faster than anyone. He captured the records one day in 1976; one card he threw traveled 135 feet; another sailed into a window several stories up; another flew 90 miles an hour. He throws a card with such deadly precision it can pierce a watermelon at 20 paces."
While Cards as Weapons unfortunately is out-of-print and copies go for several hundred dollars, BB reader David Maduram has posted selections from the text on his Web site. Link
UPDATE: Numerous readers point out that a PDF of Cards As Weapons can easily be downloaded via P2P clients like BitTorrent, eMule, and eDonkey. If Ricky Jay had the book reprinted, I'd still be delighted to buy it though!
