Can anyone recommend any good books?

Road Warrior

chillaxin
Silver Member
I'm looking for good pool books, bios and hustler type stories (I already have hustler days and I have playing off the rail on the way) Any input will be greatly appreciated
 
The ones you have are a great start. Also try The Color of Money, The Hustler, Stroke, Cornbread Red, and numerous books on shots and drills like Byrne's books.
 
try "Do It For The Game"

I have info about my novel posted on the Wanted/For Sale section (thread title: Novel- DO IT FOR THE GAME). I don't want to get in trouble but if you check out the link below you can see the AZBilliards review.

Bob
 
Road Warrior said:
I'm looking for good pool books, bios and hustler type stories (I already have hustler days and I have playing off the rail on the way) Any input will be greatly appreciated
From a previous post... I have some extra copies of several of the books below.
Add to the books below The Beard's "The Gospool."

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I'm surprised that no one has mentioned "The Bank Shot and Other Great Robberies" by Fats and Tom Fox. OK, so it's largely fiction, but it is very entertaining, and it pretty much made the Fats legend. It has recently been reprinted, I think. Byrne: Great Pool Stories; Dyer: Hustler Days; McCumber: Playing off the Rail; Byrne: McGoorty (also recently republished with the pictures present)... Here is a previous post on the topic of non-instructional books:

If you're tired of instruction, but crave something pool related,
you might want to check out the following. The biographical
and/or historical stuff is not entirely fiction, but I think much
of it qualifies. -- Bob

"The Unsinkable Titanic Thompson" is available from the publisher. I posted a link recently.

Byrne, "Great Pool Stories"
Walter Tevis, "The Hustler" and "Color of Money"
Dyer, "Hustler Days"
Byrne, "McGoorty"
Bentivegna, "Banking with the Beard"
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"
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 snooke"
Art Tully, "How to Hustle Your Friends at Pool"\
Bob Campbell, "Do It for the Game"
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"
Danny Diliberto, "You Bet Your Life"
 
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a great book about the life of Amarillo Slim one of the greatest gamblers ever..pool,poker anything else to gamble about..it's called >"Amarillo Slim in a world full of fat people"...Amarillo Slim Preston with Greg Dinkin.alot of great stories.
 
doitforthegame said:
I have info about my novel posted on the Wanted/For Sale section (thread title: Novel- DO IT FOR THE GAME). I don't want to get in trouble but if you check out the link below you can see the AZBilliards review.

Bob

Just got mine today, read the first few pages. Looks great! Looking forward to finishing it tomorrow. Thanks Bob! :p
 
I love Robert Byrnes books. Hilarious. I remember reading a pool hustler's story. True story and I remember one part told how there was a pool player who was in vegas and sold everything he owned, hawked his pool cue, borrowed as much money as he could and bet it all on a football game in Vegas. He swore to the whole pool community that if he lost that he would kill himself guaranteed. He won and everybody was cheering and he was buying drinks for everyone.

Anybody remember what book that was from? I'd like to read it again.
 
Luxury said:
I love Robert Byrnes books. Hilarious. I remember reading a pool hustler's story. True story and I remember one part told how there was a pool player who was in vegas and sold everything he owned, hawked his pool cue, borrowed as much money as he could and bet it all on a football game in Vegas. He swore to the whole pool community that if he lost that he would kill himself guaranteed. He won and everybody was cheering and he was buying drinks for everyone.

Anybody remember what book that was from? I'd like to read it again.

that's from playing off the rail. good read about tony annaggoni (yeah i don't know how to spell it)
 
The story you're talking about was Jimmy Mataya hawking his watches,etc... and putting $27k on a game. I think it was even on the Detroit Lions. He won- the guy definately had some cohones in his day.

Buddy Halls' bio "From Rags to Rifleman" is also a good read but an expensive and hard to find book ( up to 300 bucks on Ebay for a freakin' paperback.)

If you have any interest in billiards (carom) at all, Byrne's McGoorty is as good a book as you'll find. It's based on a guy famous for being an a**hole but the guy was definatetly a character and Byrne did a good job writing the book.

Green Felt Jungle by an AZ member is also worth reading.
 
Hustlers, Heros, Legends, Lies and the search for higher truth on the green felt.

I’m working from memory, pretty sure that is the title. It’s out of print but copies are still out there sometimes.
 
breakup said:
Hustlers, Heros, Legends, Lies and the search for higher truth on the green felt.

I’m working from memory, pretty sure that is the title. It’s out of print but copies are still out there sometimes.
John Grissim's book, "Billiards." That's the subtitle. Usually about $40 on eBay.
 
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