[.ca] The Straight Pool Bible: Personal Instruction from a ... (ISBN 158574025X)

A very mixed bag:
Covers some aspects of Straight Pool...but never in enough depth or clarity. More worth your money are Capelle's "Play your Best Straight Pool" (everything you can imagine about the game) and Fels' classic "Advanced Pool" (not quite as in depth as Capelle, but with good sections on the mental aspect of pool, plus several racks analyzed shot by shot). To be perfectly honest, I junked Babe's book a month after buying it; I simply had no use for it alongside better books like the above-mentioned.

Nothing new here: 'Bible' redundant, old hat:
Pool players: if you are anything above a low C player than this book is really a waste of time, and exposes no unique opinions/strategies/skills/drills that you will find useful. Basically the book rides on the coattails of the authors' professional achievements; sadly these do NOT bring with them a knack for either teaching OR writing, as sorely evidenced in this thin texts' lack of content. Time would be better spent with Cappelle, Fels and Koehler. These three will say all this book says and much, much more. Good luck with your runouts....

Insights and Inspiration:
This was a thoroughly enjoyable read. In pool speak - a "dead on" combination of personal anecdotes of one of pool's greatest champions and useful techniques for improving your game. This book is much easier to read (and thus, in many respects, more useful) than a number of comprehensive treatises on the game that are available. Larry Moy has made a great contribution to the game and, together with "Babe," has gone a long way to making a difficult, but exciting, game a little easier and even more enjoyable.

If there's one thing this is, it's a book:
Cranfield and Moy do manage to get across a few useful facts and strategies for straight pool, but there's really nothing new here. Not only is the content of the book fairly weak, it's also full of technical inaccuracies. Considering the level of play that Cranfield was at, it's interesting to note that he apparently has no grasp whatsoever of the actual effects of english and throw. While a good player of any of the other cuesports might find this a useful introduction to the strategy of straight pool, I think a beginner may find this book does irreparable harm to his understanding of basic fundamentals.

A book from one of the best.:
I've had the pleasure of watching Babe Cranfield play on numerous occasions. In my opinion, he ranks as one of the the top straight pool players of all time. The beauty of his game was an aggressive style coupled with brilliant pattern play. Few could run a rack in the simple uncomplicated manner of the Babe. This book conveys the importance of pocketing balls in the correct sequence to ensure run-outs without moving the cueball all over the table - a lost art to the modern nine ball player. While there are no new fundamentals or deep secrets revealed, the reader does gain insight from one of the finest gentlemen to ever play the game.