Did I miss the book by Byrne about McGoorty. It is one of my top ten billiard books .
McGoorty: A Billiard Hustler's Life
McGoorty: A Billiard Hustler's Life
Did I miss the book by Byrne about McGoorty. It is one of my top ten billiard books .
McGoorty: A Billiard Hustler's Life
I lost my copy of Peter Rabbit's book. If anyone has an extra copy for sale I'm interested.
$300? Thanks anyway.I have the paper back that was reprinted. There’s another on Amazon for a bill. But this one is 1st edt hardback with the dust jacket.
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I have four or five extra copies of the book. $50 shipped.I lost my copy of Peter Rabbit's book. If anyone has an extra copy for sale I'm interested.
I read this one a few years ago and can remember almost nothing.You left off the best pool book of all time: Golf is not a Game of Perfect.
$300? Thanks anyway.
Education is constant. There is no "magic bullet" for anything in life, let alone pool. One is best served gathering many resources and searching for the nuggets that make the light bulb go off. As you mentioned it's all an effort in futility if you don't work on it and put it into practice.I read this one a few years ago and can remember almost nothing.
I'm pretty sure I didn't take anything from it that I applied in my game (and that I wasn't already doing).
This may be saying more about me, or my memory, or the number of pop-(sports) psychology books I've read.
I used to devour this kind of stuff, I guess for the promise of magic bullets and quick fixes. And I think I'm at the stage of life where I can look back on everything that didn't give me any practical value, and feel jaded.
Which is maybe unfair because I did find some magic bullets and quick fixes (and slow fixes, which is good so long as they work), but the stuff I actually still use comes from a small number of books from the many I read.
Of course, if other people get practical benefit out of the book (or others), then fair enough. Maybe I just missed it, or it wasn't the piece of the puzzle that I needed.
But I do wonder whether people read these books, take the warm happy message away, then it fades and they're left doing exactly the same things at the table (and in their psychology) as they did before.
I wonder this because it's what I've done, many times.
I don't mean to sound overly negative. In the course of searching for great insight, you should probably expect to read a lot of stuff that doesn't hit the spot. And maybe I learned things, but in more intangible ways than being able to pinpoint any single lesson.
It's just something that I think about when I spot these books on my book shelf or wherever.
I read this one a few years ago and can remember almost nothing.
I'm pretty sure I didn't take anything from it that I applied in my game (and that I wasn't already doing).
This may be saying more about me, or my memory, or the number of pop-(sports) psychology books I've read.
I used to devour this kind of stuff, I guess for the promise of magic bullets and quick fixes. And I think I'm at the stage of life where I can look back on everything that didn't give me any practical value, and feel jaded.
Which is maybe unfair because I did find some magic bullets and quick fixes (and slow fixes, which is good so long as they work), but the stuff I actually still use comes from a small number of books from the many I read.
Of course, if other people get practical benefit out of the book (or others), then fair enough. Maybe I just missed it, or it wasn't the piece of the puzzle that I needed.
But I do wonder whether people read these books, take the warm happy message away, then it fades and they're left doing exactly the same things at the table (and in their psychology) as they did before.
I wonder this because it's what I've done, many times.
I don't mean to sound overly negative. In the course of searching for great insight, you should probably expect to read a lot of stuff that doesn't hit the spot. And maybe I learned things, but in more intangible ways than being able to pinpoint any single lesson.
It's just something that I think about when I spot these books on my book shelf or wherever.
True, there's probably some of that at work for me!A lot depends on the order you happen to read books in. A book lays out new and useful material, "Wow, this book(A) is fantastic!" Then a year or two down the road you read another author that covers much the same ground(B), "Meh, not bad but I have read it all before." If you had read the books in reverse order then you would be singing the praises of the first you read(B) and be saying (A) was OK but mostly covered ground you already knew.
Michael Quackson, I take it?My favorite book isn't on the list and isn't going to be added to it. I was ready for it and it helped me immensely. Out of print and overpriced now.
I put several pages of my Zen of Pool in my second book. I would say that at least 90% of it had never been printed anywhere before. Let's just say it's a different kind of instruction then how to hold your cue, stand, stroke or any of that well covered stuff.A lot depends on the order you happen to read books in. A book lays out new and useful material, "Wow, this book(A) is fantastic!" Then a year or two down the road you read another author that covers much the same ground(B), "Meh, not bad but I have read it all before." If you had read the books in reverse order then you would be singing the praises of the first you read(B) and be saying (A) was OK but mostly covered ground you already knew.
Some of the first books I read on sports medicine and the mental game covered new ground or put in writing things I knew but had never seen in print. I thought they were really something! After reading some sweeping books, I am not impressed with most instructional and mental game books I read now, by their very nature they mostly plow old ground, most of these books share much the same information.
My favorite book isn't on the list and isn't going to be added to it. I was ready for it and it helped me immensely. Out of print and overpriced now.
Hu
True, there's probably some of that at work for me!
Michael Quackson, I take it?
I'm considering investing, despite it being overpriced.
Some bullets are magic-er than others though.Education is constant. There is no "magic bullet" for anything in life, let alone pool. One is best served gathering many resources and searching for the nuggets that make the light bulb go off. As you mentioned it's all an effort in futility if you don't work on it and put it into practice.
I read this one a few years ago and can remember almost nothing.
I'm pretty sure I didn't take anything from it that I applied in my game (and that I wasn't already doing).
This may be saying more about me, or my memory, or the number of pop-(sports) psychology books I've read.
I used to devour this kind of stuff, I guess for the promise of magic bullets and quick fixes. And I think I'm at the stage of life where I can look back on everything that didn't give me any practical value, and feel jaded.
Which is maybe unfair because I did find some magic bullets and quick fixes (and slow fixes, which is good so long as they work), but the stuff I actually still use comes from a small number of books from the many I read.
Of course, if other people get practical benefit out of the book (or others), then fair enough. Maybe I just missed it, or it wasn't the piece of the puzzle that I needed.
But I do wonder whether people read these books, take the warm happy message away, then it fades and they're left doing exactly the same things at the table (and in their psychology) as they did before.
I wonder this because it's what I've done, many times.
I don't mean to sound overly negative. In the course of searching for great insight, you should probably expect to read a lot of stuff that doesn't hit the spot. And maybe I learned things, but in more intangible ways than being able to pinpoint any single lesson.
It's just something that I think about when I spot these books on my book shelf or wherever.
A lot depends on the order you happen to read books in. A book lays out new and useful material, "Wow, this book(A) is fantastic!" Then a year or two down the road you read another author that covers much the same ground(B), "Meh, not bad but I have read it all before." If you had read the books in reverse order then you would be singing the praises of the first you read(B) and be saying (A) was OK but mostly covered ground you already knew.
Some of the first books I read on sports medicine and the mental game covered new ground or put in writing things I knew but had never seen in print. I thought they were really something! After reading some sweeping books, I am not impressed with most instructional and mental game books I read now, by their very nature they mostly plow old ground, most of these books share much the same information.
My favorite book isn't on the list and isn't going to be added to it. I was ready for it and it helped me immensely. Out of print and overpriced now.
Hu
Here is the similar list from a few years ago....
(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"
The poem "If," by Rudyard Kipling.
I agree that many books of this sort simply rehash what has already been published. Anyway, what is your favorite book? (The one that is out of print and overpriced now.)
I should add that some of the older books that I thought were great when I first read them have been replaced with books that are more up to date when it comes to how our mind and body works. That doesn't mean those older books are useless, only that some of the material has been debunked or proven to be inaccurate.
Over the last several years I've probably read or listened to more than 3 dozen books on memory, habits, talent, creativity, sports psychology, peak performance, genetics, biochemistry, and so on... Drawing from this wealth of material is where I've come up with a list of books that I believe would be most beneficial for pool players in one aspect or another.
So I'm not just passing along my favorite books. I've actually done a lot of research for the purpose of finding the most up to date and relevant information when it comes to learning, developing, and performing skills and talents.
I may even have your favorite book.![]()