Billiards: Hustlers & Heroes, Legends & Lies, and the Search for Higher Truth on the Green Felt

I stumbled onto this book while searching through a game room store that was going out of business, and had everything on sale. The book was a little used and I guess had been sitting under some boxes for decades. Anyway, got it for in 2003 and it's a hardback in sweet condition! Right - so on to content: the book is great. It reads very well, and definitely provides insight into the billiard world. It's about 200+ pages, and I devoured it in a day of reading. I'm a player, not a great one, and I have a real career as well, so pool's a hobby for me, but one which I take pretty seriously. I've spent time at lots of pool halls, some seedy, some nice, most in-between. I could relate to lots of the book, but there was definitely lots of new stuff I picked up from it with respect to the billiards culture. Highly recommended.

If you'd like to know what it's really like to experience the banter of two of the top hustlers of their time--then you'll love the chapter dealing with Gene Nagy's one pocket game. Great fun!