The Illustrated Principles of Pool and Billiards

September 1, 2004
If you think the best pool players are leather-jacketed badasses who quit school at 12 to shark sailors out of their paychecks, think again. Pool involves complex physical principles that aren't taught until long after the delinquents have departed the academy. "Dr. Dave," both a professor of mechanical engineering and a " Billiards Digest" columnist, has written a textbook-style how-to that focuses on the game's fundamental principles. It's loaded with excellent color diagrams, decent photographs, and useful sidebars. He's a Web geek, too--there are dozens of cross-references to his site, where free videos demonstrate the lessons on the page. (The site even offers technical proofs!) There's so much information packed in here that learners who prefer a prosy approach may be put off. It's written clearly, though, and for the nuts-and-bolts crowd--make that the graphing-calculator and circuit-board set--it's hard to imagine a better primer. Reminiscent of Jack Koehler's excellent " The Science of Pocket Billiards" (1989). Pool is for nerds--and that's cool.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2004, American Library Association.)