my mind on books

Amazon.com has a selection of nonfiction Kindle “Beach Bag Reads for Summer,” “a diverse collection of 50 Kindle books … as low as $1.99 until July 10.” [Update – These are still up on Amazon as of 7/11, though it looks like some, but not all, of the prices may have gone back up.] Selections include:

Slots: Praying to the God of Chance by David V. Forrest for $3.79.

Book description from the publisher:

This astonishing book reveals that there’s a lot more to playing slot machines—one of America’s fastest growing forms of entertainment—than good fun, deep relaxation and the dream of a multi-million-dollar jackpot. Slots tells how the machines work, how the random numbers that govern them are generated, and how the casinos make their profit . . . slowly but surely . . . as they keep only a dime of every dollar invested. It also offers strategies of slot play, and suggests alternate activities to distract us when casinos become harmfully habitual.

But ultimately, as Dr. Forrest writes, to spend one’s time feeding money to the machines is to participate in, well . . . a form of prayer. And the gaming industry seems very much aware of it, as players annually plunge more than $365-billion into slots (of which casinos keep about $30-billion); and as casinos—70 to 85 percent of whose profits are earned by slot machines—have spread to more than a dozen states and even into a number of racetracks (where they’re called “racinos”).

What this book describes with both humor and a sense of awe is the way slots emporia have steadily been transformed from underground grottos to soaring cathedral-like structures where congregants sit and commune—all to the end of worshipping the god of chance.