Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 1,954
It's hard to understand good cube play just from playing with XG. I'll recommend three books that have a lot of information on cube handling for various levels of players:
Winning with the Doubling Cube, by Peter Bell. A good book for beginners.
501 Essential Backgammon Problems. Lots of cube problems here with brief explanations. It's been out of print for a couple of years but it's now back in print.
The Backgammon Encyclopedia, Volume 2, by Kit Woolsey. 250 cube problems plus explanations, divided into 10 separate typical position types. Just released a couple of months ago.