The AZB New Book List

I made the mistake of looking for billiard books on Amazon. These are recent publications or printings. The Jack Koehler books are new printings as is the Desmond Allen book.

I've glanced through all of these briefly. If you want a brief review of any of them, send me a PM and I'll try to look more carefully and comment. A couple of them are not worth the price or even the cost of shipping.
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"OnePocket" A game of Controlled Aggression. by Tom Wirth is a masterpiece that will be a valuable collectible someday. I think it has to be ordered directly from Tom. Not sure if Amazon or any book stores handle it. There is nothing like it. It's in a league of it's own. Don't make my word....read the realtime endorsements. They are voluntary/unpaid for reviews.
 

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Review of P.K.F. by Zero-X

I volunteered above to do (brief) reviews if requested. A member (you know who you are:)) requested a review of the PKF book.

P.K.F. from Zero-X (no author listed) is 250 pages and covers a wide range of pool info. I only had time to sample a few areas. The title stands for Pattern play, Kicking and Fundamentals.

The 8 chapters are labelled Fundamentals, Bridges/Stances, Center Ball, Sliding Cue Ball, Half Table Patterns, Full Table Patterns, Tips & Tricks, and Kicking Systems. There is lots of useful material here with many examples. I think the strongest section compared to other instruction books is the last 50 pages which are devoted to kicking systems. I noticed some other points that I don't recall being covered in other pool books.

There are four or five color table diagrams or color photographs on many pages with generally good illustrations of the points being made. Unfortunately, the resulting small size of each illustration means you may need reading glasses to see the details. The diamond system section has a nice feature of enlarged number labels for the particular diamonds in use. The spiral-bound format is good for keeping open by the table.

I find the presentation a little wordy and somewhat repetitious. I prefer to read an author who has distilled a point clearly into a paragraph and not used three pages. I'm a slow reader.

There are some items that I would have presented or emphasized differently. In particular I would have put all the comments and suggestions about fundamentals and mechanics at the start. There are a few items that I simply disagree with.

Overall, I think P.K.F. will be a useful addition to your billiard library.
 
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Bob Jewett said:
I made the mistake of looking for billiard books on Amazon. These are recent publications or printings. The Jack Koehler books are new printings as is the Desmond Allen book.

...
Click to expand...
Here is a brief text listing in case anyone tries searching for these...

Recent books, January 2017
Allen, Desmond, “One Rail, Two Rails, Three Rails and More”, reprint
Bauman, Patrick, “Playing Pool – The Missing Manual”
Cantrill, Mark, “Watchin’ T-Wheels – Road Stories with the Legends of Pool”
Cerelli, Ron, “Old School Pool”
Penman, David, “The Unknown Secrets of Snooker – How to Cue Like a Pro”
Curid, Steven, “Snooker Basics”
Imler, Michael, “Mastering Bar Table 8 Ball”
Koehler, Jack, “Upscale One-Pocket”, reprint
-- “Upscale Nine Ball”, reprint
-- “The Science of Pocket Billiards”, reprint
Lavala, Robert, “Basics to Improve Your Game of Pool”
Zero-X Billiards, “P.K.F”
Nekoba, Bryan, “The Break Run Series, Volume 1”
-- “The Break Run Series, Volume 2”
Powers and Strickland, “Stroking Tough, Billiards/Pool/Snooker Version”
Rana, Naresh, “Complete Book of Pool and Billiards”
Starzyk, Joseph, “Practice Better Pool”
 
AtLarge said:
Zero-X is Tor Lowry's stuff, right? Kind of strange that his name isn't on it somewhere.
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I suppose it's a branding thing. There are some other pool books that either have no listed author or the name is hidden on an interior page. There are lots of billiard websites that are effectively anonymous unless you trace the owner through the domain info sites.
 
Easy Ride by Suzanne Ruby

ISBN: 9780373799718
Harlequin Blaze #945

218 pages of romance. No actual pool inside. :) 5.75US/6.50CAN
 

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Books for Pool

Here is the Great Break Shot & the ISBN label

BiLLiards DIGEST May 2006



Do you have the patience to practice breaking without ever pocketing any balls immediately afterward over and over again? Queens’ brilliant Gene Nagy could break and re-rack, break and re-rack, break and re-rack for hours on end, for instance. But he was a man of many quirks and that kind of persistence and discipline is not easily come by. Still, the break, like the serve in tennis and the start in horseracing is virtually indispensable in the advanced playing of pool. When two players, of otherwise equal ability, get it on in 8-ball or 9-ball, the better breaker will most likely win a match of any length. So if you’re not satisfied with your break stroke, and you don’t have Nagy’s remarkable level of patience, how are you going to improve?


A very good start would be to take in Charley Bond’s new book, ‘The Great Break Shot,” Writing a book on a single stroke would seem a peculiar endeavor, on its surface, but that’s not what Mr. Bond has done. Instead, he’s written an excellent overall instructional piece, centered around the break . . .and he’s talking about the break-for every last major form of pool, including 14,1 and One-Pocket (and even that bloody 7-ball as well as the separating of clusters, as part of running balls. He also shares space with teacher/player Joe Tucker, whose contributions include a fascinating (if not distressing) chapter on how players cheat in racking.



We can forgive Mr. Bond’s shameless plug for his invention, the BreakRak, because it’s the ideal training tool for practicing the power break. It’s roughly the size and weight of nine racked balls. While you obviously don’t get to see your results in pocketed object- bail form, you still get a realistic cue-ball reaction to your stroke, and you also develop muscle memory for stroking the break shot.



Once you’ve gotten past your likely misconception that the break, in and of itself, is not fit subject matter for a book. The Great Break Shot” is very likely to make you a better player. It’s expertly organized and incredibly thorough. And no, there is no truth to the rumor that a book on cue-chalking is on the way.



George Fels

Columnist
 

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Try this one

THE GREEN FELT JUNGLE - over 180 pages of pool war stories, even a murder by a Dixie Mafia leader. Send $14.99 plus $3.50 shipping PayPal to (inlaw51@yahoo.com) for a quick autographed copy to your doorstep. If you don't PayPal call 504-451-9603
 
I just got a new book. It would be wrong to tell you the title. Here is the review I left on Amazon:

A joke gift for someone who likes to read but will no longer

HUGE text with random justification, a pointless X-rated story of an abused midget, a little bit about snooker and eight ball. Perhaps this is crypto-autobiographical. Nothing to read here. Stay away.​
 
This is great thread to resurrect. I had completely forgotten about Tor Lowry's PKF book. I've recently been a little burned out on pool and haven't felt like practicing, but maybe that would be something good to get back in the game with practice-wise.

On a different note, I always thought some of the best pool books I read were the ones that were non-instructional. It's really too bad there aren't more good works of fiction or non-fiction around that are pool related. McGoorty is one of my favorite books in any genre. Byrne's collection of pool stories was also quite good. I'm not sure anyone has written a really quality pool related fiction novel since Tevis even though I think there is plenty of real-life material to use to inspire a good story.
 
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