Chris Hudson has a vast collection of billiards (and snooker) books, artefacts, and memorabilia. Whilst Riso Levi remains the doyen of all writers on the game there have been, and are, others. In this article Chris shares with readers the first five of his own personal top ten together with the reasons why he finds then so appealing.
People say to me when they see my book collection, "Do you ever read them?" I am ashamed to say that with the exception of Riso Levi I very seldom do. Because a book is old or rare it does not mean that it has any practical value; and indeed a lot of rubbish has been committed to print over the years. An example from a very rare book - "The length of the cue is important, it should not be too long and not too short."
This pearl of wisdom comes from a book that I had been seeking for years, I read no further.
What do I look for in my top ten?
Unless a book is easy and enjoyable to read, the reading is itself a chore.
The writer has got to get his point over to the reader. The best players are not necessarily the best teachers, and even a good coach may not be able to convey his ideas clearly in print.
Table diagrams should be simple, clear, and above all accurate (Even the Everton book contains a diagrammatic error - sufficient to cause confusion to the beginner.) One book, "Snooker, Billiards, and Pool," by none other than Horace Lindrum contains a couple of real howlers, enough to make any newcomer to the game give it up and stick to snooker.
Some players, seem to think that they are writing for fellow experts. They are not! They are writing for beginners and average club players.
So now to the books...
One of the strengths of this book is its brevity. Without missing any of the fundamentals, Clive Everton has, in only thirty pages explained the essence of the major points of the game including, half-ball strokes, check and running side, the opening shot (ignored in many books,) top-of-the-table - postman's knock and floating white, forcing strokes, jennies, gathering cannons, etc. This book is particularly useful to snooker players who wish to have a go at billiards. Many good cuemen are baffled by quite straightforward billiard strokes, particularly check-side in-offs, and run-through losers. This book with its easy-to-understand diagrams will certainly help.
The excellent book, first published in 1957, was written by the then editor of, "The Billiard Player," Richard Holt. Interestingly, the book is, divided into a billiards section and a snooker section. I say interestingly for this reason, though many books have been written which cover both games, this is the only one to separate the two.(What about Jack- Karnehm, "Understanding Billiards and Snooker?" Ed) The work also has an index which means that if a player has a problem stroke he can quickly find the reference. The billiards index alone is more than three pages long and is well cross-referenced. One criticism I would make is that the book tends to be difficult to follow, there is extensive use of abbreviations, and the diagrams referred to in the text tend to be on other pages. The diagrams themselves are a bit confusing as there can be as many as eight strokes shown on one diagram and the resulting criss-cross of lines are reminiscent of nineteenth century books. Most strokes are covered in the book including a few interesting pages on nurseries, although the masse is dismissed as a stroke that the amateur need not bother about. (Have you read what Geza has to say about that? Ed)
This book is in fact a miscellany put together by F. M. Hotine one time editor of the, "Billiards Revue," a specialist, small circulation magazine aimed at the enthusiast (Sorry Tom Terry but there's nothing new under the sun!) The book contains a variety of material including an enlarged version of an earlier Roberts work published in 1897 as, "The Game of Billiards." The real value lies in 23 pages of miniature sketches, painstakingly recorded presumably by Hotine himself. The 27 diagrams per page illustrate entire breaks by leading professionals of the day. They have to be seen to be believed. Each diagram is about the size of a postage stamp and includes a few words of text. A break of 534 by Charles Dawson is lovingly recorded starting with a simple pot red in Diagram l and finishing with a missed cannon in Diagram 223. Since all breaks begin with a stroke which brings a mere two or three points we can only guess at how many potentially big breaks were recorded in this fashion only for the recorder to see the break end just a stroke or two later. Hotine did not limit his industry to this one book. A few years later he produced a volume, "The Whole Art of Billiards," in which there are 61 pages of miniatures, 16 to the page, and a whole session of a game between Roberts and Stevenson is recorded, 528 strokes and a diagram for each one! Either of these books would make good bedtime reading for the billiard player. (Much better than counting sheep.Ed)
Although I have called this one book it is actually two books under one over, "How I play Snooker," and, "Advanced Snooker," published in 1949 and 1954.1 make no apologies for including a snooker book in a billiards list, even though Joe did pen a couple of books on billiards. But the snooker books concentrate on stance and cue action, so important to our game. Players should remember two things when reading Davis. a) It is difficult for tall players to follow his advice on the straight arm. Most players of average or above average height prefer to have a bend in the bridge arm. b) Davis's stance seems rather old fashioned compared to the square-on method of the modern player. Perhaps the major contribution to the book's success are the photographs. The book is well written, easy to read, and should be on every billiard players bookshelf.
Although this is probably my rarest book, that alone does not put it in my list. It was privately published in India in 1928 when Geyer was Indian Amateur Champion. It is unique. Whereas other books just touch on the psychology of the game Geyer explores this aspect in depth. Written out of dedication rather than the possibility of any commercial gain, 156 pages are devoted to the mental approach, and a further 93 on practical aspects of the game itself. Even this part of the book makes constant reference to concentration and what Geyer refers to as the sixth sense. When writing this I opened the book at random and read, "When positional play takes its proper share in a break it animates it and infuses into it something which makes the balls move about as though they were endowed with intelligence."
Such a sentence could only be written by someone who knows their subject and is skilled enough to get it down on paper.
Like Levi, Geyer was an amateur who felt committed enough to not only write a book, but to pay to have it published. Another similarity is that he was always ready to acknowledge other writers and refers to books by Levi, Willie Smith, J. P. Mannock, and Tom Newman.
The remaining five books on my Top Ten list will be reviewed in the next issue of the BQR.