Features
- Cover Type: Hard Cover with 736 pages
- Published by: Sterling January 1, 2008
- Written in: English
- ISBN 10 Number: 1402742215
- ISBN 13 Number: 978-1402742217
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Book Dimensions:
11.1 x 8.6 x 2 inches
- Weighs: 5.4 pounds
Product Description
This lavishly illustrated 736-page reference provides a lifetime of entertainment! It contains complete rules, playing tips, and instructive move-by-move examples of 65 fun and diverse games. They range from Senat, a pastime enjoyed by King Tut, to Hex, invented by a 20th-century mathematician; from strategy games like Siege of Paris to dice games like Chuck-a-Luck to chase games like Pachisi; from Asian Shogi to African Wari; and from traditional Chess and Go to modern creations like Mastermind and Othello. Colorful illustrations show old-time and modern players, game boards, and equipment alongside fascinating anecdotes and curious facts about games throughout history. For every player, this one’s a sure winner!
Reader ReviewsI really wanted to like this book. No, that's not entirely correct. I really wanted to LOVE this book. So it's with a bit of remorse that I rate it at only three stars. I bought this book just after Christmas and got 30% off the already very low cover price, for such a large book. I flipped through it in the store and was blown away by the apparent depth (background, rules, strategies etc.) for a wide variety of games. But as I read more and more of it I became a bit confused about some of the language/writing in the book. It seemed, at times, a bit disjointed and awkward. It wasn't until I really took a close look at the publishing information in the front that I realized this is a translated text... from Spanish into English. Perhaps the clearest example of where things went wonky is the chapter on poker. Well, the introduction to the chapter talks about the history of card-based poker. But the chapter itself is really about dice poker. The two games are not (at least in my mind) related in any way other than the goal of making certain matches (pairs, flushes, etc.) I can only surmise that the Spanish version was a bit more accurate and that (as my title suggests) the good stuff got lost in translation. The real problem is that sometimes some of the game suggestions don't make the most sense. And again, I suspect this is because the translator was probably more fluent in the two languages than in the context of the games being written about. Visually this is a stunning work. There are wonderful pictures from the past of actual games being played and examples of some colorful and beautiful game boards and pieces. But ultimately, this text is really just for those seriously interested in the history of games and with the ability to pull the odd bit of strategy out of the jumble of words that surround the pictures.
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