Di stories - favourite bridge book

[hi bye]

Hello! Today's topic is about our favourite bridge books. I have to confess, I don't read many books for bridge. Or at least not as much as I want to. But I do have favourite ones. I  remember the first bridge book I read - it was a gift to me from a friend. The book is called: "Blocking and unblocking plays in bridge" by Terence Reese and Roger Trezel. My friend gave it to me and said something like: Use it well. Another favourite bridge book, which i took from the bridge club is called: "Famous bridge disasters" by David Bird. I still have this book and I find it very useful. I think that bridge books help us to understand different points of view about the game itself. Right now, I am reading one bridge book from Mats Nilsland, its called "Competitive bids The Scanian Way". And you? Do you have favourite books about bridge? Please, share with us!

[kenberg]

I have a lot of bridge books. This reminds me of a joke from some tv show where a woman is saying "I joined a health club but it hasn't done me a bit of good. Apparently you also have to go." I have promised myself, and my wife, that I will not be buying any new bridge books until I read more of the old ones.

As to what I like or have liked it depends a lot on when.  I learned to play rubber bridge with friends and bought Goren, first his beginner's book and then his "Complete" book. Fine for the purpose at the time. Later I read some Kantar, very good and very practical. Later Clyde Love. "Bridge Squeezes Complete". "Complete" is always an exaggeration, but it gave me a new view of possibilities. Somewhere along the way I came to prefer books that have bridge and personal storied intertwined. "The Bridge Bum" by Alan Sontag for example. Also "Bridge, Zia and Me" by Michael Rosenberg. And "Playing with the Bridge Legends" by Barnet Shenkin.

Ask me on a different day and you get a different list.

[jcreech]

Anything by Victor Mollo, Right Through The Pack By Robert Darvas, Why You Lose at Bridge by S.J. Simon, the Jake Winkman books by Don von Elsner and The Bridge Bum by Alan Sontag are my go to reads in bridge.

For technique, it is hard to beat anything by Eddie Kantar, Rixie Marcus or Terrence Reese.  And do not forget Watson's {lay of the Hand.

For practical, easy to understand concepts, of Mike Lawrence’s books.  When I was starting out, I liked to read his Play Bridge With Mike Lawrence and Play a Swiss Teams of Four with Mike Lawrence before heading to a regional tournament – his discussion of the thought process of evaluating and re-evaluating a hand within the matchpoint and IMP formats is second to none, and it is very much like he is whispering his thought processes over the course of a matchpoint or series of matches.

[foxxtrot]

I took bridge lessons at the suggestion of my Neurologist to brighten my brain. I have read many many intermediate bridge books as that is where i shall belong and don't mind staying. I am lucky enough to find so many delightful bridge friends from beginner to expert and sometimes to play with a Star of BBO. I belong to several BBO bridge clubs which I enjoy. My favorite book is BID BETTER - PLAY BETTER by the recently deceased Dorothy Truscott. I love the book and sincerely Mrs. Truscott. She made the splinter bid popular and is in the ACBL Hall of Fame. Thank you iac for allowing me to share. foxxtrot Louise

[blubayou]

Jock McQuade here
[/size]    All the great choices have been touched on above,  and I would only  put in a second or third mention  for C. Love's  'Bridge squeezes complete'.   IT is the only one  that never gets pitched when i did housecleaning, and in fact we often had two copies--one to give away to an up-and-coming acquaintance!  Love got the tools for 'getting' squeezes just right in my opinion -no more complicated than necessary and clear as can be,  with his BLUE acronym.  My screen name would be BLUEbayou but thats one too many letters for BBO ;>