• Nonfiction. By Edward McPherson. HarperCollins, $23.95.Grade: C

Book in a nutshell: Following the success of Word Freak, the brilliant account of a man's journey to become a professional Scrabble player, there has been a rash of books from authors setting aside their professional lives to pursue some nerdy endeavor, then write a book about it. That trend is running a little thin.

McPherson decided to take up bridge, a game revered by thousands. He describes the game and his process of learning it from scratch, then watching and playing in competitions around the country.

The books in this sub-sub-sub genre are best, I think, when the writer has some inclination toward the nerdy topic at hand. McPherson makes it clear that he was just an unemployed writer looking for a book contract. He'd never played bridge and wasn't even much of a fan of games.

Bridge is played with partners, and McPherson had none, so he paired up with a 90-something sweetheart of a player, and dragged her to Chicago to play in a tournament - only to come in dead last.

Best tidbit: The interviews with big shots in the bridge world read like well-crafted magazine articles about interesting people. Bob Hamman, for example, is a guy who sells insurance to people putting on big-dollar stunts, such as: "Win $1,000,000 if you can make a basket blindfolded from half-court." If you make it, Hamman pays the million; if not, he keeps the premium. It's an interesting business having a lot to do with probabilities, and in a competitive field, so it's no wonder he loves playing bridge.

Pros: If you play bridge, especially at competitions, you may read about someone you know in these pages - and you'll probably learn something new about them, too, because McPherson does a good job of painting complete portraits.

Cons: If you don't play bridge, you won't get many of the punch lines. Worse, the book is crammed with descriptions, many with no point. McPherson spends five pages describing a hotel in Las Vegas, and on the sixth page we learn that the bridge tournament in which he's playing is at a different hotel. This is just the place where he's staying and has little to do with anything, let alone bridge.

Final word: A lot of cards do not necessarily make for a winning hand.