Read 'em and Weep: A Bedside Poker Companion

by John Stravinsky

Book Overview

Poker is much more than just a popular game. It is a world unto itself, populated with a multitude of colorful characters: professionals and amateurs, hustlers and dreamers. This royal flush of a collection brings together short stories, essays, poems, and excerpts from novels by a host of renowned writers -- from the Wild West to present day -- who have mined their personal experience of the game. Entertaining and enlightening, you'll want to...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060559594
• ISBN13: 9780060559595
• Release Date: March 2005
• Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
• Length: 231 Pages
• Weight: 0.48 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.3" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

Entertaining

You do not have to be a poker aficionado to enjoy this book. It contains 38 short stories, excerpts from books or essays, all of which have poker as a theme or main story element. With authors the likes of Stephen Crane, James Jones, Mark Twain, David Mamet, Bertolt Brecht, Sumerset Maugham, Clark Clifford, Barbara Tuchman and James Thurber you can't go far wrong. The stories range from comic to tragic, with just a little instruction on the finer points of the game thrown in for good measure. You may not love all of the chapters, but I am sure that enough will entertain you to make reading this short book very worthwhile.

And I do not even play poker

All of the sudden, books about the inner world of poker seem to be springing up all over the place. My 18yo son and his friends mess around with it for pennies or toothpicks, and I hear them arguing the rules long after I've gone to bed. But now I find myself in the unlikely position of having read three books on the subject, and I'm really getting into it.Read 'Em and Weep is a collection of essays, short stories, book excerpts and (of all unlikely things) poems dealing with the eternally interesting world of the game. Many of the tales focus on the fast-paced newish game called Hold 'Em. But most of the contributions (from authors such as Mark Twain, Maugham, and Thurber) deal with the traditional more gentlemanly games from a bygone poker era. It's a good melding of the two worlds, past and present.

a good collection of poker stories

This is a collection of short stories or snippets of books all about poker there are 39 authors this is taken from those of you who have read other poker memoirs will recognize Anthony Holden,Michael Konik ,A. Alvarez and other notable poker writers.Then there are notable authors like Mark Twain,John Updike,Martin Amis,and many others.This covers subjects from the wild west river boat gambling to the current modern day of world series of poker.So give this book a try and possibly expose yourself to some different authors or refamilarize yourself with some of the old poker authors.