Your Favorite Pool/Billiards Literature

NastyNate13

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Just bought a brand new Kindle and I need some books to read.

What are your guys recommendations? I'll read anything from road stories, biographies, to instructional books.

Already bought Jay Helfert's Pool Wars
 
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dickp

Registered
Robert Byrne's biography "McGoorty" is a classic. Not sure if it's available on Kindle, but get it paperback if you have to - you won't be disappointed, I promise! It's raw, uncouth, and really gives you a picture of life in the forties.
 

lfigueroa

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Just bought a brand new Kindle and I need some books to read.

What are your guys recommendations? I'll read anything from road stories, biographies, to instructional books.

Already bought Jay Helfert's Pool Wars


"McGoorty" Byrne
"The Huster and the Champ" Dyer
"Willie's Game" Mosconi/Cohen
"Hustler Days" Dyer
"The Bank Shot" Fats
"The Hustler" Tevis
"The Pleasure of Small Motions" Fancher
"Hustlers, Beats, & Others" Polsky

Lou Figueroa
 

app4dstn

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Earlier this year I read the kid delicious book by Jon Wertheim (sports illustrated writer). Fabulous. Couldn't put it down, he's such a good writer. I'm not much of a book reader and didn't know much about pool other than what happens on the table, so it kept me glued. I read select passages to my wife and she too saw why I was so fascinated. beyond the protagonist's challenges, the content that describes the pool world is in and of itself worth the read IMO.
 

G&M

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Agree with "McGoorty." Also, "The Color of Money" by Walter Tevis -- better than (and much different from) the movie. I liked Danny DiLiberto's "Road Player." For something that's not road stories or instructional, "Shooting Pool" by Mike Shamos and George Bennett.
 

pt109

WO double hemlock
Silver Member
Just bought a brand new Kindle and I need some books to read.

What are your guys recommendations? I'll read anything from road stories, biographies, to instructional books.

Already bought Jay Helfert's Pool Wars

image.jpg

Time to buy Jay's second book.....I loved it.

And anything by George Fels and Robert Byrne
 

couldnthinkof01

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Playing off the rail by david mcCumber is well writen and a good read.

Instructional - 99 critical shots by ray martin

Mental- inner game of tennis
 

GreenFeltguy

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
The Green Felt Jungle

195 pages of pool war stories, all true, even a murder involved, send $14.99 plus $3.50 ship to (PayPal) inlaw51@yahoo.com, called a "must read" by Pool & Billiard magazine or call author at 504-451-9603, thanks
 

Bob Jewett

AZB Osmium Member
Staff member
Gold Member
Silver Member
(List last updated 7 November 2018)

If you're tired of books on instruction but crave something billiard-related, you might want to check out the following.
-- Bob

Byrne, "Great Pool Stories"
Walter Tevis, "The Hustler" and "Color of Money"
Dyer, "Hustler Days"
Dyer, "The Hustler and the Champ"
Byrne, "McGoorty"
Tom Fox and Fats, "The Bank Shot and Other Great Robberies"
McCumber, "Playing Off the Rail"
Grady, "Bet High, Kiss Low"
Mosconi and Cohen, "Willie's Game"
Grissim, "Billiards"
Stowers, "The Unsinkable Titanic Thompson"
Fels, "Legends of Pool"
Ricketts, "Walter Lindrum - Billiards Phenomenon"
Hoppe, "Thirty Years of Billiards"
"Brunswick: The Story of an American Company"
WW Woody, "Buddy Hall, Rags to Rifleman"
Thomas Fensch, "The Lions and the Lambs"
Joe Davis, "The Breaks Came My Way," autobiography
Ned Polsky, "Hustlers, Beats and Others"
Clive Everton, "The History of Snooker and Billiards"
Gordon Burn, "Pocket Money, Bad boys, business heads and boom time snooker"
Art Tully, "How to Hustle Your Friends at Pool"
Gerald E. Huber, "Green Felt Jungle"
Bob Henning, "Cornbread Red: Pool's Greatest Money Player"
Alex Higgins, "Alex, Through the Looking Glass"
Jon Bradshaw, "Fast Company"
Chris Rhys, "Snooker Disasters and Bizarre Records"
Mike Shamos, "The New Illustrated Encyclopedia of Billiards"
also: "Pool" and "Shooting Pool"
Stein and Rubino, "Billiard Encyclopedia"
Fred Walther, "Minnesota Fats, Never Behind the Eight Ball"
William Hendricks, "History of Billiards"
Peter Linhard, "How to Get By without Working"
Jay Helfert, "Pool Wars" and "Pool Wars 2"
Freddy Bentivegna, "The GosPool of Bank Pool", "Banking with the Beard", and "The Encyclopedia of Pool Hustlers"
L. Jon Werthiem, "Running The Table"
Danny Diliberto/Jerry Forsyth, "The Road Player"
Alf Taylor, "The Other Side of the Road"
Ronnie O'Sullivan, "Running"
Bob Campbell, "Do It for the Game", and "Just Do It For The Money"
Robert LeBlanc, "Confessions of a Pool Hustler"
Mark Cantrill, "Watchin' T-Wheels: Road Stories With The Legends of Pool"
 
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Bob Jewett

AZB Osmium Member
Staff member
Gold Member
Silver Member
I think there is also a more recent book about Titanic Thompson, but I'm not sure it has much pool in it.
 

jcpoolgod

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
playing off the rail, ( awesome road stories)

the kid delicious book (fat guy with a good heart and a depression issue, also the lion is his pal)

capelles books are all good, (a million different ways to pool)

the pleasures of small motions( which has good material in it but is written like someone is trying to prove they can write, instead of using a thesaurus to choose words that his english professor from high school would be proud of, the author could of conveyed his messages with much less sophistication..)

the inner game of tennis (Tennis? i said pool!!)

Golf is not a game of perfect( replace the word club with cue and golfball with cueball and you got a pool book....most importantly this book talks about the mental side of things)
 

book collector

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
30 Years of Billiards, it's about Willie Hoppe's life up until 1925.
This was when he was the balkline champion of the world.
Almost all of his 3 cushion tournaments came later.
 

ctyhntr

RIP Kelly
Silver Member
If you're looking for instruction, I don't think you can go wrong with any thing from Phil Capelle.
 

BilliardsAbout

BondFanEvents.com
Silver Member
Playing Off The Rail is great--exciting to see matches against people I've played and friends have played within.

The new Titanic Thompson biography is an incredible read. Some pool in there, but an incredible biography. Any fan of table games, gaming and adventure should read it.

Hustlers Encyclopedia is also fascinating.
 
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