Board Games Books

I had the responsibility of "doing" the games for our church family camp and this book was a life-saver. It is very well organized. I made up 4 x 6 cards of the games I wanted to use and took them to camp. I was embarrassed by the deluge of compliments on my "creativity".

As a fourth grade teacher, youth group leader, and often the appointed "game person", this book has provided me with countless great ideas. The kids think I make up all these fun games, but the hard work and creativity deserve to go to the author of this book, Mary Hohenstein. Fun ideas. Easy to figure out. Great book!

This is the very best games book that I have ever come across in my 15 years working with young people and adults in a range of training and fun situations. I loaned my copy to someone and never got it back and I am desperately searching for another one. So if you get a chance - buy this book and never let it out of your sight.

I had the responsibility of "doing" the games for our church family camp and this book was a life-saver. It is very well organized. I made up 4 x 6 cards of the games I wanted to use and took them to camp. I was embarrassed by the deluge of compliments on my "creativity".

First published in 1969, this book brings you 38 original games. Sid Sackson collected these games as member of the N.Y.G.A (New York Game Associates), allthough many are his own invention.

It is true that any Hoyle will give you instant access to many games, but all these games somehow have something special.

My own favorite is Haggle, a delightfull party game for birthday parties.

Board and card games are so ancient and spread around the world that one may think nothing really new will come up. If that's your opinion, this book will change your mind, offering dozens of NEW games to play with pencil & paper, pocker chips or standard playing cards.

Sid Sackson was probably the most prolific collector of board games in the United States (and probably the world). Sid loved games and he loved inventing games, too. With many published games to his credit (some of which made their first public appearance in this book), Sid Sackson (the designer of one of my favorite games of all time, "Acquire") is my personal game guru and I have made a point of acquiring any game or book with his name attached. This book is full of fun and very playable games discovered, re-discovered, and invented by Sid Sackson. Do your brain a favor and buy this book now!

This is a brilliant book by Sid Sackson. It compiles the rules for a variety of games, with the common feature that all can be played with the materials that you already have at home. Some games use cards, others use a chess or checkers set. There are a lot of paper and pencil games which are great to play while travelling.

The games are a mixture of "forgotten" games, new games invented by friends of Sid, as well as lots of games invented by the author. Many of these games have subsequently been published in a boxed format by major companies, but this book gives you a chance to try them out at no cost.

There are simple games, solitaire games, serious strategy games, party games for 20 or more people, and everything in-between.

My favourites in the collection include a 2 player card game of pure skill ("Mate"), a card game that resembles Canasta but which is rather more fun ("Paks"), a scrabble-like pencil and paper game ("CrossWords"), and a game called Focus that is 2 or 4 player strategy game that weakly resembles a cross between checkers and Shogi.

If you love games, then you should have this book. If you don't, then buying this book just might change your mind!

This book is very practical and easy to understand. It helps develop the necessary skill in Tesuji. The context and sequence make the book easy to follow through. It is a very good book that suitable for all level players.

This book contains 534 go problems. That's it, that's the entire content.. the author doesn't even introduce himself. If your goal is to "get strong at go" as the title suggests, it will suit you perfectly. However, if you enjoy the occasional fun anecdote or prefer a little more easy-reading, you could be dissapointed. It's definitely an instructional book and it's goal is to make you a better player.

I'm ranked 9kyu on KGS and I got a lot from the book from doing just the easy (1 star) and intermediate (2 star) problems. I suspect that anyone could enjoy the 1 star problems if they take their time for them. If you are already a very strong player, you could try to solve the problems spending no more than 10 seconds on each of them. Conclusion: I recommend this book, but don't expect anything other than 534 go problems and their solutions.

I am an 'amateur' go player. I've played infrequently for a few years, and I think I spend more time reading go books than actually playing go! I find that if I'm bored, if I have a few minutes to spare, or if I'm going on a bus ride or something, I can open up this book and entertain myself with it.

This book doesn't 'teach' you anything, but you can learn a lot from it! In doing these go problems you will develop good habits and an eye for how to play in certain situations.

Where it falls short: It does not teach you how to play the entire board. It only has situations which are focused on a certain area of the board, and disregards the other events in the game. This is totally appropriate, though, because situations like these arrive constantly, and you must learn how to not only perform your own tesuji attacks, but defend against them. You should supplement this book with a book like 'get strong at the opening'.

Reading Get Strong at Tesuji is an excellent way to strengthen your middle-game. The book consists of over 500 problems, ranging from easy(20k) to hard(1d). Each problem helps make it easier to read out situations in a game. Personally, the book helped improve my game by 3 stones.

Without a doubt the best book on go in the English language for any player above rank beginner. A compendium of masterpieces by a player whom many feel was the greatest of all time. Shusaku's games contain literally thousands of lessons on every phase and aspect of the game, with each lesson fixed in perfect context - a real game. His characteristic clarity makes playing good go seem much like other Truths, simple, pure and quite easy once illusion falls away. One needs to study no other go book to become strong, and certainly studying no other go book would be as much fun.

As soon as one reaches the low kyu ranks, it becomes extremely useful to study professional games (and it doesn't hurt to do so earlier). This book presents the games of Shusaku, one of the best players ever, who lived in the mid-19th century. Eighty games are given with detailed commentary (I like the commentaries by Miyamoto Naoki the best). In addition, there is a good discussion of the historical context, rivalries, and drama surrounding the games.

The openings in these games are dated (although it is nonetheless interesting to see Shusaku making innovations in opening theory), but the middle and end games are not. Current professional Kobayashi Koichi 9-dan has said that one of the keys to his success is that he studied Shusaku's games 10 times.

The book is beautifully designed and laid out. Every go player should treasure it.

It is great history book about the superb master of go. It is huge collection of commented games of the master. One of the best go books I ever read.

I am playing Go a little over a year now, and I must admit that Shusaku is way beyond my level of thinking. However, going over his games (and not spending so much time on the alternatives in the commentaries) has helped me tremendously. Even though I am not in the above 10 kyu rank, I am very thankful for Shusaku helping me to jump from the lowest rank to 15kyu - and because of my profession, I do not play that often. I have studied his games repeatedly and will continue to do so, because there is always something new that I didn't get the last time reviewed the games. I feel gratified that if I am still just a novice and have profited from his games and broadened my thinking - I look forward to the greener fields I will receive from this book as I grow more in the knowledge of the game. This book is just plain THE book.

I really enjoy this book. The blend of science (underwater archaeology) and fantasy (Atlantis) is extremely well done. It's an easy story to read, but improves each time it's revisited. If you've got children (especially boys), who resist reading, this book could well change their opinion.

My mother is the author of this book. She has written a sequel, "Merlin's Legacy", which we are working on getting published. If you liked this book, please add your review.

We have obtained the rights to King Tut's Gameboard and are having 300 more copies printed.

Our family is one of energetically avid readers and this book remains one of our favorites! It is an easy and thoroughly enjoyable book that's storyline about Ancient Egypt and modern finds is really well done. I read it as a pre-teen and continue to read it to my son. It is a subtley intriguing and satisfying read. It's a pity Ms. Ellerby didn't write other stories, I am sure they would have been as fascinating.

I am SO glad to hear Ms. Ellerby wrote another book (see review by her daughter)!!!! I'm waiting to buy it! Thank you.

As for the copyright for the book- wouldn't a movie based on the book be WONDERFUL?! Certainly intriguing!

Anyone who is interested in Ancient Egypt should definitly read this book. I think that was Ms. Ellerby's theory of how Egypt got to be such an advanced civilization. The book is about two kids who make an amazing discovery by looking very closly at a game piece in a museum.Everybody in my family has read it and loved it. If you don't get something it explains it at the end of hte book.

This is an excellent book for that "special man" in your life -- whether it be a husband, brother, son, etc.!! The recipes are really so simple, which makes is much more enjoyable for men!

For Xmas, I gave the Man & Can series to my college-age sons who are moving into "landlord" housing this semester. These cookbooks, with their easy to follow, illustrated recipes, prove that cooking is not hard and can be fun! Cooking for yourself is a lot cheaper and healthier than fast food. These cookbooks give them a place to start! They were really tickled with the gift, even though, their buddies thought it a bit odd. My sons told me that their buddies will appreciate the books, too, once they are eating the good food made from them!

This is a great cookbook for anyone who is learning how to cook, or for someone who wants quick simple recipes!
Very few ingrediant recipes, that also include pictures of the ingrediants needed, such as a can of tuna. It gives a new cook a picture so they know what to look for at the store.
The recipes are also created so that they are healthy, which is always what I am looking for.
I would recomend this cookbook for anyone!

I just bought this cookbook at my son's book fair this afternoon and am already loving it! The recipes are easy, fast and completely tailored after a man's appetite requirements (think meat and potatoes) . Since I am the only female in a house of men, this type of cookbook is exactly what I was looking for. It contains 50 simple meals and snacks that men will adore-what more could a woman ask for? Buy this if you want the man in your life to be amazed at your sudden culinary skills or to give to a college bound son or nephew who is in need of fast, easy, filling fare.

First I will preface my remarks by saying I have not played AD&D since around 1991. Although I am aware of the developments since then, I have never chosen to move to the new systems and feed the publisher's coffers.

One of Gygax's last major contributions to TSR, Oriental Adventures details the oriental adaptation of the 1st Edition AD&D rules (post Unearthed Arcana). This is a fantastic game and a fantastic system, although those of us coming to the genre anew might find it intimidating. Essentially this details some of the classic warrior archetypes in Asia (Bushi - soldiers, Kensai - weapon specialists, Samurai - honour-bound warriors) wizard archetype (Wu Jen) etc... Ninja is not an independent class, but a secondary class that some archetypes can have (similar to multi-classing).

There are four races, one which is like an Oriental version of Dwarves, one which are effectively shapechangers, and the three branches of part-human "Spirit folk", and lastly, humans.

Gygax lays out a couple more layers to the normal AD&D experience - honour system and class / caste system, and adds in martial arts for a full Oriental experience. The spell lists from the Player's Handbook are adapted to the Orient, and many stay roughly equivalent.

This book was criticised at the time for mixing different oriental cultures / archetypes into one book. In response to that - this is fantasy. There is enough interesting variants in here to give an Eastern flavor to any campaign. If you are interested in this area you can also pick up fairly cheaply some of the Rokugan books (published by L5R and easily adaptable to this rule set - although written for 3rd ed d20 system, or vice-versa).

However, this is a very good value book now available cheaply second hand. Buy it (and the other 8 or so original titles) because these books are full of imagination. Despite all the years of fixes within second, third, 3.5 and 4th editions, I still prefer these original texts. Buy them while they are still available.

The only fault in this book is that it is written in archaic 1st Edition D&D rules, which is not that easily adapted to 3.5. But this book is worth a translation, because it is far superior to its modern counterpart.

The rules for new races & classes (including ninja and kensai) are much better presented. The martial arts system is a munchkin's dream (It's pathetically easy for anyone to start doing 3d10 punches), but unlike it's 3e successor, its rich in flavor and easy to advance in a far more logical manner. The Wu Jen have never been done as well since this edition, and they have many great spells in the book. As an added bonus, they used a new setting for OA, instead of retrofitting everything to Rokugan, which severely crippled the 3e book.

A must have for any RPG collection.

This book is fantastic, and adds so much depth to the campaign. It has everything you need to run an Oriental Adventure, or make characters in an oriental setting. TSR has yet to duplicate in any other book the remarkebly well balanced rules of this book. For example, the Ninja in Oriental Adventures is more inetersting, better devolped, and more enjoyable to paly with only a few pages of coverage than anything in the 2nd edition complete book of Ninjas. IF you can find it, buy it, you will not regret it. The only drawbacks are that A) the book is out of print, and B) AD&D is moving to 3rd edition, and Oriental Adventures exists solely as a 1st edition book, so the rule converstaion may or may not proove difficult.

Here it is, the most coveted AD&D hardcover in existence - not only for its rarity, but for the excellence of its rules! Here, you get 128 pages of how to play ninjas, samurai, wu-jen, and more; the elaborate Honor system, oriental magic, and the unique monsters and treasures of Kara-Tur, all in one beautiful reference! The golden age of the 1st edition game, here in one volume.

... Today my grandmother gave him the Puzzle Gallery: Food book, and he loves it! The only drawback is that the puzzles can be hard to fit together if you try to do them inside the book. I'd recommend doing them out of the book, on a table or the floor.

This book was a big hit with 2 boys (ages 7 & 8) They enjoyed answering the questions of what to look for in the painting. And the puzzle of the paintings kept them interested in the art by trying to put it back together. Very nice book great' value And a keepsake for other children to use

We got this book for our toddler daughter, who loved looking at the pictures, representing charming examples of children in fine art. At age 2 we introduced her to the actual working of the puzzles, and at 3, having mastered them, it is still one of her favorite books and activities. Highly recommended.

I just got this book for my 2.75 year old son who loves puzzles. I was very pleased to find that, not only did he love to work the puzzles, he was also fascinated with the paintings themselves. He's too young to address the questions that the text poses about each painting, but has spent a good deal of time simply studying each on his own. I highly recommend this book!

This book on Puzzles was first published in 1986 and later published in paperback. I borrowed it from my Library a couple of times and recently obtained my own copy. If you have any interest in puzzles,you'll immediately agree that this book is outstanding in every way. The authors are two of the biggest names when it comes to writing about mechanical puzzles of today and of the past. Jerry Slocum has collected puzzles all his life,has over 30,000, and has probably the finest collection in the world. He is President of the Slocum Puzzle Foundation,in Beverly Hills,California.
This book is an overview of just about everything there is about puzzles.There are all kinds of puzzles such as Crossword,Word Search and many types more commonly called Pencil Puzzles;but that is not what this book is all about. It is somewhat difficult to define Mechanical Puzzles;but if you think of the types of puzzles that you can pick up in your hand,it helps to see the types of puzzles covered in the book.
The authors cover puzzles everyone is familiar with such as Rubik's Cube,Sliding Blocks,Tangrams,Wire,String & Rings,Mazes,Puzzle Locks,Puzzle Boxes,Take-Apart Puzzles,and on and on. I think you get the picture.
The authors cover the history of the puzzles and give hundreds of pictures of them from their collections as well as from collections of other great collectors. The book has many pictures of the creators of puzzles and it is a real treat to put a face to the names which are so well known in the puzzle world.
The book is a pure delight to read and to look at the fascinating array of puzzles;but it doesn't end there. There is all kinds of information on how to go about solving many of the puzzles;and on top of that lots of instructions oh how you can make many of the puzzles. No doubt,the reader could build quite a collection of puzzles,just from the information in the book.
I also find this book to be a real help in finding and identifying puzzles. People don't throw away these puzzles;but they often end up in Flea and Antique Markets,Second Hand Shops,Garage Sales and so forth. This book shows you what to look for and find. Let me give you an example. A while back,I saw one of the Japanese building towers shown on page 65,sitting on a shelf amongst a bunch of bric-a brac,didn't recognize it as a puzzle ,and passed it by. When I saw it in this book,I immediately knew what I had missed. Oh well,live and learn. The point is,if you hope to find puzzles,you got to know what to look for;and this book shows you. Another good example. The Bombay stores carries puzzles at times and recently had 4 very well constructed puzzles.I bought one called "The Comet" which is quite similar to the "Papa-Chuck" puzzle on page 74 and consists of 51 interlocking pieces.
So,if solving,collecting,making or anyting else about puzzles interests you,this book will become a prized possession.It would take many lifetimes for one person to find and enjoy what the authors have assembled in to this excellent book and made it available with extremely high ,color,paper,illustrations ,printing and construction quality;and at the same time a very reasonable cost. While you're at it,why not check out Jerry Slocum's Page on the Web,to see what's going on in the world of puzzles.

I bought the book originally to learn how to make some of the puzzles. The fact that there are dozens of puzzles to make immediately differentiates the book from others. There is an enormous wealth of information about puzzles of all kinds. The authors have notes about puzzle inventors, tips on making puzzles, and, in a few cases, tips on how to solve the puzzles. Really a nice book for anyone with an interest in puzzles.

This book is full of many types of mechanical puzzles many dating from the early 19th century. 150 pages of pictures and discriptions of how to make and solve many of these puzzles along with history and biographies on many of the puzzles and makers. The authors have included concise instructions on how to make many of these puzzles from wood with common handtools and a basic knowledge of how to read net drawings. A great read for any age.

Whether you love puzzles or they just frustrate you beyond belief, you's sure to find this book intriguing and absorbing. Filled with 150+ pages of pictures, diagrams, text, and solutions, this book is the most comprehensive treatment of puzzles of all natures that I've ever seen. Puzzles addressed include: 3D Wood block puzzles, Drinking Vessles, Imposible Objects, Folding Puzzles, Disentanglement Puzzles, and more...

Of course not all puzzles are solved by the book...the authors have to leave you something!

If you're handy in the machine shop you'll enjoy the diagrams of wooden blocks and other items that you can make. I've made a few with great results.

My husband never relaxes he is always either at work or working on the house. I bought him the set of four of these puzzle books. He loves challenging his mind and learning new things. This series is great at getting him to sit for awhile. He still is doing something but resting at the same time. My teenage kids also have gotten in on reading and doing these books. We love the whole bathroom reader collection. I have even given bathroom reader books to my in laws as presents and they love them as well. Its a gotta have book in our house.

This book had all the puzzles that I love and a great mix of them too. It also has a few fun facts and stories to keep things interesting. Love it.

I did not buy the book for myself but for my son who is (sad to say) currently in jail. He did enjoy the book and it helped to pass the time and I will be ordering him another the books soon. Thanks

This is a puzzle book like no other -- it's got something for everyone. The crosswords and other puzzles are very high quality (but not necessarily hard) and the quizzes are fun and funny, just like the Uncle John readers. We've been playing it together as a family and we've been consistently amazed and amused. Other puzzle books usually concentrate on one kind of puzzle, but this one has a great variety of fun stuff to do. We can't wait for the next one!