Patti's book recommendations

The following are some of my favorite books on backgammon, and gambling in general. With one small exception, they're all a part of my library, and come highly recommended.

By clicking on the titles, you can purchase them from

Backgammon Books
Other Gambling Books
Poker Books
Non Gambling-related Books
What Patti is currently reading

Patti's favorite dirty books

Backgammon Books

Backgammon by Paul Magriel
This is the definitive book for beginning to intermediate players, and one that every backgammon player should read at at least once every couple of years. While it predates computer backgammon, most of the advice is theoretically sound and still considered quite correct.
Backgammon for Winners by Bill Robertie
This is a very lightweight introduction to backgammon principles and strategies. While it's a sound book, the target audience is rank beginners and those who will only play casually.
Backgammon for Serious Players by Bill Robertie
The followup to Backgammon for Winners.
501 Essential Backgammon Problems by Bill Robertie
A collection of backgammon problems, both checker play, and cube decisions, for players of all levels.
Advanced Backgammon Volume I, Positional Play by Bill Robertie
Advanced Backgammon Volume II by Bill Robertie
These two books are essential for any serious student of backgammon. Volume I covers strategic, positional plays, and Volume II deals with plays of a more technical nature. Each one contains XX problems with in-depth analysis of the plays and decisions.
How to play Tournament Backgammon by Kit Woolsey
The pioneering and definitive work on tournament backgammon strategies.
New Ideas in Backgammon by Kit Woolsey and Hal Heinrich
The most exciting backgammon book to hit the market in years. Kit and Hal have put together a book of extremely difficult problems with in-depth analysis.

Other Gambling Books

Positively Fifth Street by James McManus
Jim McManus gets sent to Vegas by Harpers to do articles on the murder of Ted Binion, and successful women poker players. He plays a satellite for the WSOP, wins a seat, and then finishes in the money in the main event. This book is the results of that, and I couldn't put it down.
Word Freak by Stefan Fatsis
While not technically a gambling book, this is a fascinating look at the world of high-level tournament Scrabble. It's a must-read for all game players.
The Man With the $100,000 Breasts and Other Gambling Stories by Michael Konik
This is a fascinating collection of stories about gamblers and their antics. The title story alone is worth the price of the book.
Gambling Theory and Other Topics by Mason Malmuth
Getting the Best of It by David Sklansky
Poker, Gambling, and Life by David Sklansky
These books contain an excellent collection of essays on both general gambling topics, and topics pertaining to specific games. They're a must-read for any serious gambler.

Poker Books

Winning Low-Limit Hold'Em by Lee Jones
Lee's Book is the best introduction I have found to playing in the kind of games you'll find in California.
Hold'em Excellence, From Beginner to Winner by Lou Krieger
This is also an excellent book for learning to play Texas Hold'em.
Tournament Poker for Advanced Players by David Sklansky
David has some good ideas, and pounds them quite thoroughly in this book. It's almost a "one trick pony", although it's worth reading just for his snarky comments.
Poker Tournament Strategies by Sylvester Suzuki
Don't bother.
Both McEvoy's and Buntjer's books are good reads, but Amazon doesn't carry them.

Non Gambling-related Books

The following are some of my favorite non-gambling-related books.
Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity by Bruce Bagemihl
This book dispels the prevailing notion that homosexuality is uniquely human, by exploring same-sex behavior in many different species of animals.
Mrs. Byrne's Dictionary of Unusual, Obscure and Preposterous Words by Josefa Heifetz Byrne
This is my all-time favorite dictionary. Where else can you find words like aristophrenic, paronomasia, and algolagnia?
Leatherwomen II edited by Laura Antoniou
If you don't know why, you don't want to know.

What Patti is currently reading

A Beautiful Mind by Sylvia Nasar
This is the biography of John Forbes Nash upon which the academy award winning movie was based. Read the book and get a version that's closer to reality than the sanitized Ron Howard story.
A Patchwork Planet by Anne Tyler
Anne Tyler writes wonderful things about truly fascinating characters. This is her latest.
The Everlasting Story of Nory by Nicholson Baker
I'm actually a much bigger fan of his other works (Vox, The Fermata) but this is a fairly amusing story told through the eyes of a nine-year-old girl.