I have and/or have read HOC1/2, PNL, NLHTAP, and TOP but I'm looking for something a little more rudimentary for my wife to read as her introduction to playing.
She knows the rules of poker and has some idea on how to play but she'd like to read a beginning strategy book and I don't think she would like HOC because it's so full of hand examples and PNL has some pretty deep concepts like SPR for a big portion of the book, and I don't know if she's ready for that.
Anyway if you guys can make some suggestions, that would be great. I haven't read any of phil gordons books but that was my first thought.
You can also try Fundamentals of Poker by Mason and Lynne Loomis and Poker for Dummies.
I am not sure if the former is still in print but you can probably get a used copy on Ebay or something for a couple of bucks.
These books are good in that they give an overview of poker in general.
I need a good `small stakes NO-LIMIT' book (main game at local casino). I bought "Small Stakes...'" by D. Sklansky, M. Malmuth & E. Miller, but discovered it was a LIMIT book.
I have been playing for 3 years and need to improve my game as a `scratch player'.
GSIH is excellent for beginners. Miller introduces important concepts like hand reading and pot odds in a way that is very approachable to a noob. GSIH wasn't my first poker book, but I wish that it had been.
The person recommending SSHE to a beginner must be smoking crack. That book is the best thing ever written about about getting paid in loose passive limit games. However, a beginner is not going to be able to recognize that type of game and is going to end up donating a lot of money when they run into a table where people know how to play. SSHE is balls for someone that has already developed a limit game, but would be a disaster for a beginner.