The Right Way To Do Wrong

Read Harry Houdini's book from 1906 on con artists and successful criminals, "The Right Way To Do Wrong," for free at Google books. Its pretty short at just 97 pages.
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Translated From Memory

“It is easy enough, no doubt, to play the conjuror without possessing either dexterity or mental ability. It is only necessary to lay in a stock of apparatus of that kind which of itself works the trick. This is what may be called the “false bottom” school of conjuring. Cleverness at this sort of work is of the same order as that of the musician who produces a tune by turning the handle of a barrel organ.”
-Robert-Houdin

From The Secrets of Conjuring And Magic by Robert-Houdin. The Essential Robert-Houdin reproduces the entire text of this book and almost every other word he ever wrote. The volume is currently out of print and very hard to find.