My Gaming Bookshelf
Tuesday, August 2nd, 2005Alfred just posted a great piece on books about games. This is the sort of thing blogs are best at.
I have not read too many books about games, just the basics:
- A Gamut of Games – Sid Sackson. Out of date and print, but there is still lots of good stuff.
- New Rules for Classic Games – R. Wayne Schmittberger. Excellent, particularly on abstracts.
- The Oxford History of Board Games – David Parlett. The author designed Hare and Tortoise. He is a bit too fond of his own creation, but I can forgive him for that. This book approaches the topic in the right level of detail for my taste.
- Dice Games Properly Explained – Reiner Knizia. This is OK, but I am not interested in pure dice games. I would rather he wrote a book about board games. I believe he contributed to a book on board games design.
- 100 Strategic Games for Pen and Paper – Walter Joris. This could be good, but some of the rule sets are too sketchy. I have yet to find anyone to play a game with me. I keep it in the glove compartment of my car with a couple of pens in case I am ever stuck somewhere with nothing to do.
My favourites are definitely New Rules for Classic Games and the Oxford History of Board Games.
Joe Huber’s book reviews at The Games Journal are good, but he has not yet enthused me about any of the books.
I am tempted to try Word Freak by Stefan Fatsis. I love books about obsession by obsessives. It takes one to know one.