Cherry Picker

Slot machines account for more casino revenue than all table games combined, yet little has been written about them. Unlike poker, blackjack, and craps, slots have no history, heroes, strategy, or books about legends or showdowns or turning the tables on the casinos.

That has changed with the just-released Cherry Picker, which reveals a unique perspective in gambling writing: The author is an English professor, literature scholar, and lifelong unapologetic losing slot player.

Far from hiding his fondness for the one-armed bandits, author Mark Shechner extols the passion he shares with throngs of fellow slot heads, debunks the derision of journalists, do-gooders, and gambling pundits, and rejoices in the almost mystical attraction of one of the world’s most popular entertainment practices.

Short on math and long on mindset, Cherry Picker is an ode to blazing sev­ens, double diamonds, and wild cherries. But it’s as much a meditation on cars, music, deserts, Buddhism, hallucinogens, the natural versus the synthetic, Vegas as Oz, flat tires, and noodle bars as jackpots.