"Whoever said that winning is everything never played the slots. For millions of “cherry pickers,” winning is closer to an unintended consequence than a goal, but good luck finding anyone who will admit to it. Enter Mark Shechner. An English professor, literature scholar, and lifetime slot-machine enthusiast, Shechner routinely escapes the intellectual milieu by taking cross-country jaunts in fast cars and becoming one with the hordes crowding Las Vegas and casinos throughout the world. Far from hiding his fondness for playing the one-armed bandits, the author celebrates his lifelong passion in this book—simultaneously ignoring the derision of journalists, sociologists, and do-gooders and rejoicing in the almost mystical attraction of gambling’s most efficient and polarizing wagering device. Cherry Picker is an ode to suckers, pishers, senior citizens, and slot heads everywhere—chasers all of the blazing sevens, the double diamonds, the wild cherries. But it’s more than that. Short on math and long on perspective, Cherry Picker is a meditation on the automobile, traveling, classic gambling literature, Buddhism, hallucinogens, the natural versus the synthetic, and Vegas as “Oz.”--Back cover.