Learning Differences of 9ball vs 8ball

I have always found it interesting how I couldn't get enough of learning about 8ball from Phil Capelle's books, yet I never read any parts of his 9ball books.

Even his BEST book (imho), Play Your Best Pool, has both a 9ball and 8ball section.

The 8ball portion (of the two copies I own) has so many sections highlighted, pages dog-eared, sentences underlined, pages spattered with sloppy hand-drawn stars near amazing advice, etc.  That part of the book is WORN OUT!

Yet if you flip through the pages of the 9ball section in the same book, it looks brand new - nothing touched or written on.  Every page clean and pristine.

Although I feel my best game is 8ball, I play a darn good game of 9ball, too.

I wonder why the difference in learning styles for these two games for me?

Is it because I play more 9ball and learned a lot from others throughout the years so I feel my 9ball game is pretty good based on on-the-job-training (lol), 3-ball shape, taking my time, and having good fundamentals?

I didn't know all the beautiful strategies of 8ball until I read his book.  8ball is one of the most amazing, thought-provoking games out there that I never realized UNTIL I read his book.  After I read it the very first time, that year I became a BCAPL Master player (in 2006 or so).

As a matter of fact, every single year before I play in 8ball singles of State or Nationals, I would reread the 8ball section as a great refresher.

For 9ball?  I don't really do any preparing like I do for big 8ball tourneys.  I just focus on my 3-ball shape and years of experience, and try to tame my mind and get mentally tough/focused.

Wierd, huh?

Even typing all this out doesn't give me the urge to go read the 9ball section.  I guess I feel comfortable with my 9ball game because I've been so successful with it.  Can you imagine if I would have read his 9ball books YEARs ago?  It would have saved me a lot of time!