The AZB New Book List

Anything published 1925 or earlier is now public domain. Here are my favorite historic billiards books:

1. Phelan, Michael, Billiards without a Master (1850). Phelan's halls made billiards popular across America. This book was reprinted and revised for the next thirty years: https://www.google.com/books/edition/Billiards_Without_a_Master/qR0CAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0

2. Collender, Hugh. Modern Billiards (1880). Collender owned the #2 billiard table company in America and his book was very popular in the last few decades of the 19th century. Brunswick eventually bought Collender's company (forming Brunswick, Balke, and Collender) and continued to publish this book until 1909. https://www.google.com/books/edition/Modern_Billiards/vId1gOKe3MwC?hl=en&gbpv=0

3. Daly, Maurice. Daly's Billiard Book (1913). Daly was one of the top players and the top teacher of the early 20th century. Hoppe was one of his students. His book was one of the last great texts of the carom era. https://www.google.com/books/edition/Billiard_Book/u3IDDAVh0KMC?hl=en&gbpv=0

4. Vignaux, Maurice. Le Billiard (1889). Vignaux "The Lion of France" was the top carom player in the days before Hoppe. He helped make carom popular in the U.S. when he won the 1874 U.S. national championship, the first year it moved away from four ball. https://www.google.com/books/edition/Le_billard/2ewYAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0
 
kling&allen said:
Anything published 1925 or earlier is now public domain. Here are my favorite historic billiards books:

1. Phelan, Michael, Billiards without a Master (1850). Phelan's halls made billiards popular across America. This book was reprinted and revised for the next thirty years: https://www.google.com/books/edition/Billiards_Without_a_Master/qR0CAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0

2. Collender, Hugh. Modern Billiards (1880). Collender owned the #2 billiard table company in America and his book was very popular in the last few decades of the 19th century. Brunswick eventually bought Collender's company (forming Brunswick, Balke, and Collender) and continued to publish this book until 1909. https://www.google.com/books/edition/Modern_Billiards/vId1gOKe3MwC?hl=en&gbpv=0

3. Daly, Maurice. Daly's Billiard Book (1913). Daly was one of the top players and the top teacher of the early 20th century. Hoppe was one of his students. His book was one of the last great texts of the carom era. https://www.google.com/books/edition/Billiard_Book/u3IDDAVh0KMC?hl=en&gbpv=0

4. Vignaux, Maurice. Le Billiard (1889). Vignaux "The Lion of France" was the top carom player in the days before Hoppe. He helped make carom popular in the U.S. when he won the 1874 U.S. national championship, the first year it moved away from four ball. https://www.google.com/books/edition/Le_billard/2ewYAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0
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i am enjoying modern billiards right now its been tough to look away for 15 minutes the historical intro is so good
 
If you are interested in the history of pool (and also billiards) in America, this is the book for you:

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Greenleaf: Pool's Greatest Champion Paperback – December 17, 2020 by Sam Korte​

It is an excellent biography of the man some still consider the best pool player ever. It covers his start, his successes and his demons. It has lots of pictures and newspaper clippings to fill out the story. It is available for under a dollar on Kindle and for only $8 printed. And if you have questions, you can ask the author, who has posted just above.
 
Book I have lost that I wish I still had, have seen them going for crazy money,,by Johnny Holiday and secrets of high runs. Bought it back in the early 70's I'm thinking and went to work on my straight pool game on my table at home , which helped everything later on. Thinking back
I'm thinking it was position play for high runs ,,was the early book before the one below.

www.worthpoint.com

Pool/Billiards Johnny Holiday - Continuous Hi-Runs | #75507921

Johnny Holiday's Continuous Hi-Runs This soft-cover book, written by the author of Encyclopedia of Pocket Billiards, Johnny Holiday, includes explanations that you, rather then the instructor of pool
www.worthpoint.com www.worthpoint.com
 
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Chip Roberson said:
Book I have lost that I wish I still had, have seen them going for crazy money,,by Johnny Holiday and secrets of high runs. Bought it back in the early 70's I'm thinking and went to work on my straight pool game on my table at home , which helped everything later on.

www.worthpoint.com

Pool/Billiards Johnny Holiday - Continuous Hi-Runs | #75507921

Johnny Holiday's Continuous Hi-Runs This soft-cover book, written by the author of Encyclopedia of Pocket Billiards, Johnny Holiday, includes explanations that you, rather then the instructor of pool
www.worthpoint.com www.worthpoint.com
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I have a couple of copies of Continuous Hi-Runs available. $60 plain, $75 inscribed by the author. I also have copies of his Encyclopedia available.
 
Any books on the history of billiards spreading?
Like which countries imported pool tables first, and stuff.

trying to track down origins of billiards in PI
 
justnum said:
Any books on the history of billiards spreading?
Like which countries imported pool tables first, and stuff.

trying to track down origins of billiards in PI
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I think that's an interesting question. I did a quick search and most people blame (credit) the Spanish for introducing the game. I incorrectly thought it would have been WW2, but it's popularity in the Philippines goes back a long time:

"Institutionalized forms of gambling, however cockpits, card parlours, billiard halls and so forth, followed in the wake of the Spanish occupation of much of lowland Luzon and the Visayas...A newspaper article in November 1889 advocated the need to reissue the proscriptions against certain classes playing games during working hours as these people could now be seen playing panguingui, billiards and the like at all hours of the day and night." Paper Link
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There are several places online and in print where you can find a good history of how billiards first spread in Europe and then to their various colonies.
 
kling&allen said:
I think that's an interesting question. I did a quick search and most people blame (credit) the Spanish for introducing the game. I incorrectly thought it would have been WW2, but it's popularity in the Philippines goes back a long time:



There are several places online and in print where you can find a good history of how billiards first spread in Europe and then to their various colonies.
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Relatives tell me those beer commercials were inspiring. Asia has investors and sometimes it helps to be reminded about them.

Some countries like to imitate other countries culture. PI is like that
 
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Another book to avoid.

"How to Play Pool and Billiards in Easy Way" -- you can tell from the title that this is not likely to be a useful experience. In spite of the generic English-speaking author's name (Mike Basemann), it is pretty clear that the author is not a native speaker. Looking inside, you will notice funny grammar and spellings. There are a lot of poorly printed diagrams that look like they are from other people's books including Dr. Dave's. The author uses large print in a font that is hard on the eyes. The good news is there aren't many pages. This is a print-on-demand book that was printed within the last week just for me.

Do not waste your money.

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The book lists a bunch of other books by the author on various sports. I imagine they are as well done as this one.
 
Oh yeah, those print-on-demand thingies are usually stuff ripped from legitimate sources. The "authors" try to make money the easy way - I have experienced similar books in golf ball collecting and other hobbies of mine. Really just rip-off stuff, mostly.
 
Bob Jewett said:
Another book to avoid.

"How to Play Pool and Billiards in Easy Way" -- you can tell from the title that this is not likely to be a useful experience. In spite of the generic English-speaking author's name (Mike Basemann), it is pretty clear that the author is not a native speaker. Looking inside, you will notice funny grammar and spellings. There are a lot of poorly printed diagrams that look like they are from other people's books including Dr. Dave's. The author uses large print in a font that is hard on the eyes. The good news is there aren't many pages. This is a print-on-demand book that was printed within the last week just for me.

Do not waste your money.

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The book lists a bunch of other books by the author on various sports. I imagine they are as well done as this one.
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At least they got the colors of the balls correct , seemingly difficult for some tourney promoters these days……
 
"Pool for Complete Beginners" -- yet another to avoid. Here is the review I did for Amazon:

Bottom of the Heap

This is another self-published book that is a total waste of paper. It is very badly written to the extent that I suspect English is not "Robert Ticker"'s native language. "Estimation" is used for "dimension" for example. The colors of the pool balls are explained thusly: "The tones are composed dependent on their numbers."

The good news is that the "book" is only 40 pages with no diagrams to distract you from the very, very large print. That with the extensive use of white space means that the complete text could have fit on eight or ten pages.

There is nothing useful in this book.
 
Jimmy Caras’s book was the Bible of Trick Shots for me.
Most other trick shot books just had the same trick shots but it was always good to get a different explanation or tip on how to execute.

F6BAFFD8-3536-4F03-B6CC-A9A1DC1F1638.jpeg
 
Poolhall60561 said:
Jimmy Caras’s book was the Bible of Trick Shots for me. ...
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Mine was Mosconi's second book since it was the only one I had for the first six months or so of playing. I was lucky enough to have a table to practice the masse shots on -- my friend's. I probably left dents in the particle board bed but we never noticed them.
 
I was always looking for that edge and I was willing to pay for it.
Easier than working for it, I guess
As long as it was cheap.


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He does have the same name,

McKernan Cue Cases Galore

Hi All, Here is a grouping of six McKernan cases from my case collection. These cases are high on the cool factor scale, and not common in the marketplace so I thought I would share a few pictures. Most of the lids have chevron-shaped inlay work, and inside the lids all came with a Brad tip...
forums.azbilliards.com
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