the pleasures of reading the "pleasures of small motions"

E

evergruven

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
over time I'd heard of this one, finally went to the library a few weeks ago and grabbed a copy
so far I've only skipped around the thing..it's dense! ironic I picked it up and thought it flimsy
but every page I land on offers something, and not just for pool players- there's life stuff in here!
move a few words around and you could have a ny times self-help best-seller in your hands:giggle:
and yes, that which is applicable to pool is cool..there's plenty of neat head stuff but also body
I'm currently spending time on a section that deals with finding/refining mind and body rhythm

anyway, want to thank y'all for recommending "pleasures" to start with- I'm really digging it.
and to those not yet hip, check it out! you can get a copy on ebay for ~15 bucks shipped-

(pool) on,
sean
 
I'm one of the negatives, I'm afraid. I've read the book several times and have not found one redeeming value where I'm concerned. I did, however, get a lot out of The Inner Game of Tennis, Mental Toughness Training for Sports, and Winning: The Psychology of Competition. My wife reckons it's a right brain/left brain thing.
 
Pushout said:
I'm one of the negatives, I'm afraid. I've read the book several times and have not found one redeeming value where I'm concerned. I did, however, get a lot out of The Inner Game of Tennis, Mental Toughness Training for Sports, and Winning: The Psychology of Competition. My wife reckons it's a right brain/left brain thing.
Click to expand...
Inner game of tennis is a great read
 
Bob Jewett said:
I liked it, too, but some readers have a very strong negative reaction.
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It would be stretching things to say I had a very strong negative reaction but I think part I which I believe was the entire first edition, was far stronger than part II. Seemed like they felt the need for more pages without really having more to say.

Part I I rate pretty highly, part II blah at best. The focus seems to be heavily on not losing, not on winning. It would seem if you focus on not losing you would win but in reality if the focus is on not losing instead of focusing on winning, you lose, it just takes longer.

I have the second edition somewhere in my possessions, not valuable enough to keep up with. I haven't read a ton of books about the mental game and I still rate most of the others I have read as better. One was titled something like "Finding The Zone." The author was a competitor and MD, I think psychiatrist. I wasn't very deep into the book before I realized he had never been in the zone and didn't know what it was! Good book on mental prep, just not about the zone. His credentials and experience had given me high hopes, quickly dashed!

Another book by a several times world champion was empty. The entire book came down to "just do it!"

Our opinion of books depends a lot on our past reading. The first decent book is full of treasures. Other good books have much the same information as the first good one, so a lot of overlap. By the time you have read a half-dozen decent books you are mostly diving for pearls, a few good things that aren't repeats. Somebody with an approach or perspective you aren't already familiar with is either great or a fantastic BS artist! They can be hard to tell apart.

Hu
 
I've read the 1st half of this book about 3 times. For some reason I never seem to finish it. I usually read a book this size in one sitting.
 
markjames said:
i’d like to see the first edition,
before it was expanded

can’t find it
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I would like to see it too or at least have it confirmed that part one and the first edition are identical. What I read somewhere is that the writer didn't feel like it was going to sell particularly well when they released the first edition. When it did sell well they felt it was very thin for a book, little more than a pamphlet, so they expanded it when issuing another edition.

My information is from years ago and wasn't necessarily correct when I saw it so definitely "for what it is worth" which ain't a whole lot! What I read did make sense after reading the two parts of the edition I have, I believe the second edition. Definitely not the first.

Hu
 
ShootingArts said:
I would like to see it too or at least have it confirmed that part one and the first edition are identical....
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The first edition was published in 2000 and is 108 pages. Eight ball shot on the cover, vanity press publisher -- 14 publishers turned down the first edition.

The second edition was published 2002 with a blurred break shot on the cover and is 145 pages. It was published by Lyons Press which has done several pool books.

The intro to the second edition talks about the publishing history and the updates. Fancher did revise the seven original chapters some and added five chapters and an interlude. Six or seven diagrams were added.

I have several extra copies of both editions or you can find them online. One of them is on Kindle.

The book was also published in Spanish.
 
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evergruven said:
over time I'd heard of this one, finally went to the library a few weeks ago and grabbed a copy
so far I've only skipped around the thing..it's dense! ironic I picked it up and thought it flimsy
but every page I land on offers something, and not just for pool players- there's life stuff in here!
move a few words around and you could have a ny times self-help best-seller in your hands:giggle:
and yes, that which is applicable to pool is cool..there's plenty of neat head stuff but also body
I'm currently spending time on a section that deals with finding/refining mind and body rhythm

anyway, want to thank y'all for recommending "pleasures" to start with- I'm really digging it.
and to those not yet hip, check it out! you can get a copy on ebay for ~15 bucks shipped-

(pool) on,
sean
Click to expand...
I took a highlighter to my copy on the second read through. It's a great book with lots of valuable information.
 
Bob Jewett said:
The first edition was published in 2000 and is 108 pages. Eight ball shot on the cover, vanity press publisher -- 14 publishers turned down the first edition.

The second edition was published 2002 with a blurred break shot on the cover and is 145 pages. It was published by Lyons Press which has done several pool books.

The intro to the second edition talks about the publishing history and the updates. Fancher did revise the seven original chapters some and added five chapters and an interlude. Six or seven diagrams were added.

I have several extra copies of both editions or you can find them online. One of them is on Kindle.

The book was also published in Spanish.
Click to expand...

Might hold one of the first edition for me and the next time you gather a handful of books to ship you can throw it in the pile. Was interesting times here and I made a slow start on the last batch then read them fairly close together.

Hu
 
I have access to some top sports psychologists and will ask for recommendations on reading suggestions for pool and one that came up more than once was actually an optimal performance book for business. The first 100 pages or so are great information for pool.

Coherence: The Science of Exceptional Leadership and Performance 2nd Edition​

by Dr Alan Watkins
Fatboy said:
Inner game of tennis is a great read
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agreed
 
Pushout said:
I'm one of the negatives, I'm afraid. I've read the book several times and have not found one redeeming value where I'm concerned. I did, however, get a lot out of The Inner Game of Tennis, Mental Toughness Training for Sports, and Winning: The Psychology of Competition. My wife reckons it's a right brain/left brain thing.
Click to expand...

a little impressive to hear/read, especially given how much good stuff I'm finding in "pleasures," but understandable
personally, I read the "inner game" when I was a tennis player, and then later as a pool player, never been a fave tho
that's life, I guess..we can find trash/treasure just about anywhere..space and time has a lot to do with it, too, I think
so what's the bottom line? sure we won't all like the same stuff, but we should try to give stuff a chance, as you did

don't play, can't win..
 
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