Gamebooks Books

I am an intermediate class chessplayer looking for a fairly easy opening to play as black against 1. d4. This book presents a viable defense for black. The focus is on ideas rather than memorizing reams of variations. The introduction section alone is worth the price of the book. This section presents the core ideas in this setup. The rest of the book deals with concrete variations. So if u dont want to memorize page after page of informator symbol headache, get this book.

This is a great book. A number of opening books fall into one of two categories:
1. Excessive numbers of variations to learn, with little explanatory information.
2. Insufficient variations, so that one will frequently encounter over the board situations not given in the book.

This book avoids both of these shortcomings. It gives a reasonably large number of variations - anything worthwhile/likely to be played by white, AND detailed explanations regarding the strategies behind the moves. The variations are all supported by games of leading players. The book is well written and easy to read.

Importantly, it clearly points out some of the pitfalls to be aware of in playing this opening.

It also provides brief but insightful annotations to a large number of complete games, adding value beyond simply opening theory.

Thoroughly recommended.

The Dutch Stonewall used to be a pure attacking opening, but in recent years it has become positional. This book is very good in giving you the ideas behind the moves. Understanding these ideas gives you a big advantage. It is also well organized and written.

This book tells you everything you will need to know about the Stonewall. It also has a huge collection of games where the Stonewall is used. I highly recommend this book to anybody who needs a defence against 1 d4.

"Easier Done than Said - Brilliancy at the Bridge Table" by Prakash Paranjape is a beautiful book to read. It is a great book for bridge players at all levels. I have never been (acknowledged as) a Bridge Expert. It is said that one cannot know how a millionaire thinks (especially when it comes to spending) unless one is a millionaire. I may never know what experts think about this book. But I know that some so called experts were scared to read Hugh Kelsey's book "Adventures in cardplay" when it was published, thinking that it may confuse their thinking process and they may actually do worse in the Bridge tournaments if they read it. Well, no one needs to be scared of Paranjape's book in that way. It is a great book because it is easy to read and easy to understand. It has been known that Paranjape has a fine eye for instructive deals. What I think is, any deal that Paranjape sees, he will find an interesting point or two from it. What he and the editor Ray Lee have done extremely well in this book is that they have selected the deals wherein not only a great analysis has been presented, but it can be understood easily. There are no cliches used and a reader does not have to be a great statistician to understand the concepts presented. And still readers can learn a lot from the book and play better. Paranjape has described some great plays that are brilliant and elegant at the same time. Logic of each situation has been presented so beautifully, that a reader is enthralled by the simplicity. My hats off to the author, editor and Chuck Messinger, who has done the additional analysis for the deals in the book. I would give "TWO THUMBS UP" to Paranjape's book and recommend strongly for your reading pleasure. It is pleasing, entertaining and instructional for any Bridge enthusiast.

-Mahadeo Patwardhan

I expected to have seen most of the problems since I trained under Panja 4 years back but was pleasantly surprized to see quite a few new themes. Defintely worth buying even for all levels.

I am now waiting for the DemiComa system to become publicly available.

"Easier Done than Said" will be enjoyed by bridge players of all standards. The bridge technique highlighted is not new, but Dr. Paranjape has a discerning eye for novel settings and the teacher's skill for taking the mystery out of complex ideas and making them comprehensible to the layman. The expert bridge player will enjoy the unusual setting of the hands; the advancing player will learn from the clear exposition of expert technique.

This book is refreshingly different from the normal bridge book the reader comes across. For one, it talks about the bridge scenario in India, which has never been captured before. The problems discussed are interesting and the analysis is thorough. Players of all levels should find this a useful reading material.

This book is great in all senses: the information about the man and the epoch, the chess tournaments, the life of without doubt the greatest chess master ever, and probably he will remain insuperable, because he was not "only" a chess world champion, but also a "real" philosopher and mathematician in all the sense of those terms. So is sad when you hear that he has been called "a chess-coffee master" or something like that... ¿How dare them? His triumphs in life as a whole are innumerables, and in chess, without equal... "In august 1936 (Nottingham 1936), he once again amazed the chess world by a performance no one could possibly expect of him... achieved what seemed a miracle at the beginning of the tournament: he had caught up with the leaders every one of whom ranked among the world's top-players and was by decades his juniors (Botvinnik, Capablanca, Euwe, Fine, Reshevsky and Alekhine)... To have maintained his place among those leaders at the age of 68 was, perhaps, one of the greatest achievements in Lasker's long career..." (pgs. 297,299). This book, moreover, is beautifully written.

Another Dover reprint! You know I rate Dover books highly. This one is top notch too, reaching their usual high standards for binding etc. The original print is retained which is good as the diagrams from the hardcover edition were excellent. [For computer users they are the Hastings font ] The translation to English was done by Heinrich Fraenkel ('Assiac') and is excellent. The games are typical of Lasker - all fighting games ( there are losses) and all show his grim determination to win. But the best part is the biography. Lasker was a highly intelligent man, who only played chess out of necessity. We are treated to a description of his youth, his relationship with his brother, Berthold, who became a famous Doctor. But the real story is his romancing of Martha his wife. Great human interest, great chess, and we also get the crosstables for the events that Lasker played in. A must buy for all players no matter their strength.

Emanuel Lasker was one of the four or five greatest chess players of all time, an outstanding player of many other games, and an outstanding mathematician and philosopher. The biography is a good read, but the games alone are worth the price of the book. They are in descriptive notation. I know a lot of players don't like descriptive notation, but there is a mountain of low-priced classic chess literature in descriptive notation, of which this book is just one of the many outstanding examples. Take my advice: Learn descriptive and read the classics. You won't regret the experience.

This book is a combination of a biography and game collection. There are 102 games in the book. The games are given in descriptive notation. The annotations were collected. Many of them are from the original book of the tournament that they were played in, however there are alot of games annotated by Reinfeld and Reti. Most of the annotations are light, and there is only one diagram per game. For about 60% of the tournaments that Lasker played in, full results are given. The theory in the book that Lasker played pyschological chess was Reti's theory.
The biography side of the book is pretty interesting. For the sake of those who aren't Yiddish speakers, the term 'chammer', which appears in the beginning of the book, really should be 'chammore', and means donkey. For some reason, this is the Yiddish phrase used to insult someone of less than average intelligence.

Exalted Abyssals (Exalted Second Edition)

This is an amazing corebook. Period.

Has a lot of ideas, potential, cool Charms (although most are Mirrors of the Solar Charms) and good view of what the Deathlords are, their plans, metaplot, ideas, vague description of their places and all. Clean, intelligent, more stuff is revealed in this book, several new things that was not said in the first edition, plus necrotech stuff, ideas for playing with other types of Exalted and great illustrations.

It is a MUST buy for the Exalted fans!

I've been waiting for this for a while. I was depending on my 1st edition copy and the Storyteller's Companion to make my Abyssal work. This book does a great job of clearing up everything about resonance vs. limit and other aspects of the rules that are different for Abyssals. If you want to run an Exalted game with a dark tone, or just have some interesting antagonists or player characters this is a must have. The only gripe I had is that I liked the artwork for the first edition a lot better.

Everyone wants to play the villain, even if they won't admit it. Manual of Exalted Power: Abyssals, gives players of Exalted Second Edition that chance. The characters are created from warped, twisted Solar Exaltations that are possessed by the Deathlords, who rule the Underworld. While the players can do a game dealing with their character's evil, there is also the option of an Abyssal being able to redeem themselves and becoming a true Solar once more, not that this would be easy, of course. New charms, spells and Necrotech (creating weapons and such from body parts) are in here as well as details on nine of the thirteen Deathlords (the other four are for the Storyteller to create). The book is dark in scope, considering its subject matter, and deals with mature themes that might be disturbing to some (Remember, if you're easily offended, you don't have to read it).

Exalted Abyssals is a well written book with a good deal of wit. It is clear from the beginning that White Wolf wanted to make these characters more playable, so their moral ambiguity is certainly played up. The text itself is set up much like the past books in this series, giving an intro to the history and world of the Abyssal, followed by a character generation chapter and then one explaining the traits in more detail, a chapter on new Abyssal charms, a chapter on Necromancy and technology ("necrology"), and finally a Storyteller's chapter.

The general information this book yields is useful. Granted much of this is either rehashing what was already discussed in the Second Edition base book or further explanations, the Neverborn are better explained as is the Underworld. I would have liked to have seen a new map of the Underworld included in this book as it was in First Edition, or even a map of where the Deathlords' lands are. Such things exist on-line, though that is not always an acceptable option in the middle of a game.

The artwork is up to Exalted standards, and the comics have a very dark humor to them. As my friends and I pealed through the pages, we found ourselves chuckling on a regular basis at some of the more disturbed bits of evil. Make no mistake that this book is dark, and should have come from the Black Dog press at White Wolf. Brief nudity is in this book, though only a minor amount (no more than in the core book). The blackness of the book is pretty intense, which can become training on the eyes. Everything is black and dark gray, so you will occasionally have to squint to see what you are reading or to fully see what is in the picture.

If you have a gamer who tries to pull Mr Welsh style stunts in your games, do not give them access to this book. It is full of devilish ideas that, while funny, are fairly asinine. That is a major feeling one gets from this game.

Gripes about the book are pretty small. In general, the Abyssal Exalted seem pretty confining to play. When reading the Dusk caste, for example, the author all but shoves down your throat that you are an uncontrollable psychopath who must kill every living thing she sees. Exalted has usually been good about not making those kinds of comments limiting play-style, so it was a little disappointing to read. It felt like they were sucking some of the fun from the character creation process. Aside from little problems such as that, the book fits in well with the rest of the game. Again, it is not that suggestions are not good for character concepts, but telling the player they must strictly play this did not seem right.

In the end, this book is incredibly useful for both ST and player, though for most games this will likely become a book for generating NPCs rather than something characters will make a regular use of. That is, of course, you are playing a rare Abyssals game. Get the book. Read the book. It at least has pretty pictures.

This forgotten book deserves attention. Critics have always loved it, but the unfortunate title ("Fast Company: How Six Master Gamblers Defy the Odds--And Always Win") confused the reading public. It never sold well. It is NOT a collection of get-rich-quick drivel. It's a group of incredibly poignant, expertly delivered portraits of some of the most colorful professional hustlers of the 20th Century.

At once informative, funny, and deeply moving, Fast Company is one of two favorite books on my extensive shelf of gambling titles. If you're at all curious about the subject, you must buy it.

Not really a travel book, like the rest of the Vintage Departures line, but an examination of another culture just the same. Bradshaw profiles six men with something in common--they are all hustlers, that is, gamblers who make a living by their wits. The range here is great, including the tennis player Bobby Riggs and backgammon great Tim Holland, as well as more "traditional" gamblers Minnesota Fats (pool), Pug Pearson and Johnny Moss (poker), and Titantic Thompson (proposition). But these were just what these men were best at--they all exceeded at almost every game they undertook, golf being an extremely common one for each. Bradshaw was a gifted writer. His style makes this book difficult to place down; the subject makes it nigh impossible.

I'm sitting here and recalling some of my favorites of the nearly hundred poker/gambling books I bought between 1999 and 2002 while learning the ropes. Looking through my collection I find not one but three copies of Fast Company. The memories come flooding back!
I have three copies because back then it was out of print and I bought every used copy I could find online, just to be sure I always have a copy. It is that good.
Bradshaw was a truly gifted essayist and observer and was never out to sell the gamblers here as heroes. What he did instead was get inside their heads like a master poker player, and then show us what made them tick. Add to that their own reminiscences of many of the other greats and you get one of the most in-depth of all books on gamblers and their passion. (Those who judge gamblers as somehow unholy might learn a thing or three from this book, and might consider that our entire global economy is run by Wall Street gamblers who have recently made some of the worst wagers in history...though when you keep your billions in profits but your debts are picked up by the taxpayer, it's always a good bet!)
The extra stroke of genius of Fast Company is that Bradshaw was able to meet and chronicle the lives of some of America's greatest gamblers (and what country is more based on gambling?) before they died, and before most in the mainstream realized how special they really were. Each of the six portraits is a masterpiece.
It's hard to pick a favorite as each article is so fine, but the pieces on Johnny Moss and Titanic Thompson are truly legendary, as were their subjects. I won't go into detail other than to say that I just reread the last paragraph and got a chill up my spine remembering what I felt when I first read this book. I learned a lot about poker and life from Fast Company, lessons that have served me well and made me money ever since. Never underestimate the power of a great book!
No hyperbole could match how far beyond other gambling writers Bradshaw was/is. He understood how complex and incredibly sharp and funny and wise and foolish these men were, because he was in their league. He doesn't lionize them nor does he demean them. He shows full respect for their incredible lives and exploits (and is willing to slyly point up their hubris, as with Fats) and by the time you've read about these six gamblers (three of the greatest poker players included, Moss being perhaps the finest of all time) you have a true feel for what being a real road gambler back in the day meant.
There's also wry laughs aplenty, as in the Bobby Riggs tale, and so many great anecdotes. So many! The Gods of Gambling made sure that a writer of Bradshaw's calibre was able to meet Moss and Thompson et al before they (and he) died, so that we would have a book that finally reveals the depth and breadth (as well as the shallowness) of the life of a world-class gambler. These are not always the greatest of men but they are all great characters, with all that implies.
For some reason I've never loaned this book to any friends; it's always felt like my own little secret world in some strange way, a hidden canyon full of dapppled sunlight and dark corners that shows how glorious and venal life can simultaneously be. Read it and you'll see why. It is a very special book indeed, and it amazes me that it has never received anywhere close to the acclaim it deserves. Only two reviews five years after the second reprint in three decades? (Blessings to the reprinters, by the way! Few books are more worthy.) Truly incredible, especially in light of the poker boom and resultant poker book boom (most of which are trash and not worthy of sitting on a shelf next to this tome).
And a dime for a used copy? Deal of the century! Buy a copy for everyone you know who appreciates great writing when they read it, or who has ever stayed up all night in a game trying to get unstuck.
Thank you Jon Bradshaw, wherever you are, for writing the definitive book on what it means to be a gambler, warts and all. You are in the same class as Thompson and Moss: the best in your field, and sadly underappreciated by history. That will change. (One day you will hear this book mentioned and quoted by every lame tv poker commentator out there. Everyone tells the Moss/Greek story, but this is the only version in Johnny's own words.) This book will also sooner or later be accorded its just position atop the gamblers' literary pantheon beside Dostoyevsky and friends.
Then again, true greatness is its own reward. As any real gambler knows (and who amongst us is not gambling every day, even just by driving on the highway or eating genetically modified "food"?), it's living the peaks to the fullest that counts, and then surviving to scale them again. Some of the finest and most interesting people I have ever met were at a poker table. Beauty is oft found in the most unlikely places.
Fast Company has my highest recommendation for those who respect men who live life the way they want to, and love to slip back in time to a world before plastic was invented.

This book helped me incredibly understand the odds and help beat the casino at their games. I recommend it.

Richard Palliser has done a remarkable job with this book. He goes into great detail & analysis of how to attack & defend the anti sicilians.

This is by far one of the best chess books I have ever bought. I had great difficulty in analysing the anti sicilians until I got my hands on this book! In particular the c3 Sicilian & the Morra Gambit!

Well done Richard Palliser for a detailed & Analytical Chess Book! I t is rather obvious that you put lots of hard work into this book.

This isn't a review actually, but a correction to the Amazon listing of this book. The book doesn't cover Bb5 systems! Palliser has written that excluding them was a tough decision but was done for space considerations (if memory serves me correctly that is, check out chesspublishing.com's forum section to read exactly what he said). One can get a very good book by Palliser on the Bb5 systems here at Amazon. That said, this is another excellent Palliser book. [...]

In my overly-large collection of chess books, I have a number of titles about "Beating the Sicilian" and a number more about "Beating the Anti-Sicilians." These books tend to promise, in hyperbolic fashion, a near-certain strategy for whichever side they are support. Yet even a lowly class player such as I has trouble understanding how both sides can have a legitimate no-fail strategy for victory!

That's why I was happy to acquire and read through Richard Palliser's new book. Though it is written from the standpoint of the Black player and attempts to provide a solid repertoire for that side, it is, gladly and surprisingly, very well balanced, and represents fairly the ideas and aspirations of both White and Black, presenting chess as a struggle of ideas in which the outcome is anything but certain.

Black reactions to the 2.c3 system (once called the Alapin) are covered in a great deal of detail. The same is true for the 2.Nc3 "closed" Sicilian. There are plenty of variant moves considered along with games and illustrations. There is a bit less coverage of the Grand Prix Attack; both the 2.Nc3 3.f4 and 2.f4 variants are treated, with some excellent ideas in the latter for playing the Black side of the Tal Gambit (the author analyzes the less frequently played but very interesting Nbd7 reply to Bb5+; Bd7 is the usual reply). There is some coverage (not as much as I could have wished, but then there are other specialty books on Sicilian gambits available) of the Morra Gambit and the Wing Gambit, as well as a few pages devoted to the really offbeat stuff.

This is clearly the best book of its type in terms of coverage, balance, readability, and utility. IM Palliser has done a really fine job, and the book is an easy one to recommend to Sicilian fans.

IM Richard Palliser is an excellent author, arguably the best at Everyman Chess. His works are always thorough and his recommendations always solid.

The author includes some explanatory material and gives justification for the lines that he recommends, but this book is more on the "database dump" side of the opening book spectrum. I must admit to being a little disappointed by this, having loved his Play 1.d4!, which I think is a repertoire masterpiece--if not for the lines themselves then for the mix of breadth, depth, and prose.

It could be said, however, that the subject is the Sicilian Defense, and any serious book with this topic must be very concrete. While that is true, I would have liked more practical (middlegame!) advice in the vein of Play 1.d4 or especially in the vein of The Sharpest Sicilian. It is this practical middlegame advice that, to me, places the latter work on a very short list of the greatest opening works ever.

Still, I think this is the best book on the Anti-Sicilians currently available. Recommended. Note well that this book basically deals with White second moves and, as Mr. Snow pointed out in his review, does not cover 3.Bb5(+) (the Moscow/Rossolimo Variations), for example, or Yudasin's favorite 3.Bc4. He does cover Zvjagintsev's 2.Na3!?, though with such a move there is much more scope to just "play chess" than in most other lines.

After I have seen this book I must say that it is a "must" that anyone should have. It is shameful that somebody that wants to become the undisputed world champion, tries to win it by means that do not belong to the sport. To accuse someone and to have no proof at all of anything, it is only show of seomone who is not capable of getting anything via normal ways.
Definitely Kramnik won "EVERY SINGLE POINT" on the chess board. I have seen the San Luis 2005 book, and I would say, that yes it might have some points in which Topalov could have worked on his own before computers were well developed. But, to try to win a WCC match by no sportive means. That's something else!. NO EXCUSE for that!!!
I really like the book!

If you are a typical chess amateur like me who loves to read chess books more for the anecdotes, and sort of wishes that the games and analysis would somehow automatically permeate through to my consciousness, then you will love this book.

The stories and accounts are fascinating, Ilya Luvitov in particular asks some very sharp and direct questions and this brings out the best of Bareev. And snippets in between from thoughts of Kramnik and Lautier and the occassional quip from an Kasparov interview keep making the book more colorful.

The games are full of diagrams and there is both sufficient text commentary that you dont need to setup a board and also there is enough analysis to keep one busy if one did get the pieces out !

A book not to be missed, unique amongst all chess books in the way it captures the very heart of the human element of competitive endeavour.

First I want to clarify and say that this book deserves its good reputation, and its high selling volume since it first came out is justified. One can enjoy penetrating into thinking process of the skilled chess professionals who had been interviewed from the Kramnik camp, as well as read excripts from the other GMs cited from different sources.
Sheer amount of psychology involved into pre-game preparation is puzzling, and drive one to continuously read it. Concreatly, I was more interested into reading details of pre-game preparation process and post-mortem reactions, than of analysis of the games played. Fortunatelly, analysis material of the games is significantly lighter that that of the "San Luis 2005" book, but still it wouldnt mind if some more textual explanation had been added into it, especially at late opening phase mortals nowdays are hard to grasp.
From historical perspective this is the book to have on your chess shelf to cover world championship matches starting from 2000 and leading to final unification match in 2006.
Recommended.

From London to Elista: The Inside Story of the World Chess Championship Matches That Vladimir Kramnik Won Against Garry Kasparov, Peter Leko and Vesilin Topalov I found the book to read easily and the material with analysis is very strong.

During a recent flight, included with my carry on luggage was a copy of "Fun With GPS", a relatively new publication from ESRI press by Don Cooke. The author is the founder of GDT, recently acquired by Tele Atlas, and has an extensive resume, including having played a key role in the creation of TIGER.
Jumping right in, the book provides the reader with an introduction to GPS along with a useful primer on mapping and the proper use of a GPS. The "meat" of the book is really from Chapters 3 onward. This is where Cooke provides numerous informative, educational, and interesting examples of real-life uses and applications of GPS. Even better, each example explains (in detail) a fun use, detailed instructions, photos/images, useful web links, and interesting commentary.

Particularly useful (and educational) small sections devoted to mapping, GIS, accuracy, and GPS concepts & terminology are included. After all, simply capturing and storing GPS coordinates is hardly of use, particularly to the layman. It's the understanding of the data, along with integration of maps and/or GIS that really makes GPS fun! A particularly interesting and "bang on" quote from the book that really struck a cord with me... "GIS really does put the fun into GPS". My take... indeed it does!

So who should buy or read Fun With GPS? If you happen to be one of millions of users of a GPS or a GPS-enabled mobile device then you'll no doubt find this book to be a valuable addition to your library. Can the book provide specific examples that apply to your lifestyle? Likely so since numerous specific examples and applications of GPS uses have been provided. These include:
Geocaching
Degree confluence chasing
GIS/mapping
Ice skating
Hockey
Skiing
Racing (auto)
Hiking
Sailing
Polo
Camping
Golf
Rowing
Sky diving

If you happen to have a hobby included above then Don has provided a detailed example application of how you will find GPS to be useful and fun.

Finally, the heart of the book comes in chapters 2 and 8. Chapter 2 offers an awesome primer on mapping. Cooke uses the free ArcExplorer GIS data viewer from ESRI and the complimentary (and free) DNR Garmin program from the Minnesota DNR as the focus of a tutorial on using your GPS data with a GIS without spending a dime. Both programs are totally free and detailed instructions for use have been provided to get you up and running and help get your GPS data off the device and used within a real application.

Chapter 8 is devoted to the use of GPS in schools and in the community. Interesting sample uses focus on the use of GPS by a museum to track visitors, mapping of a restored cemetery by grade school students, and even how to write your name with a GPS track log. Students attempting any of these sample projects will no doubt get a great introductory education to mapping and geospatial concepts, but will still have some addictive fun with their GPS as well... they may also even solve a community problem or address a local conservation issue.

Fun with GPS is truly a fun read. I admit, I have a dusty, 2 year old Garmin somewhere on my desk, however, it wasn't until I read this book that I had much interest in turning it on! I plan on locating a geocache in the near future and I also plan on capturing a degree confluence or two!

[...]

Do you remember when a GPS device was expensive and heavy and only to be used for serious work? The inexorable progress of Moore's Law has laid that low. So along comes ESRI Press with this lighthearted book by Cooke. Outreach to the young masses. He talks about fun and cool things you can do with a GPS transponder. All the things we never had.

You might wish to thumb through his suggestions. See if any catch your fancy. Or, if you like these ideas, try also looking up the magazine "Make" published by O'Reilly. It has the same freewheeling spirit seen here.

Think 'GPS' and what comes to mind? Usually in-car navigation systems - but there's much more to GPS and ordinary users may find these devices can be attached to about anything to be use for interesting results. Maps and photos come with each outlined project for hobbyists, athletes, drivers, teachers and more. Use GPS devices to track and map activities, or in a treasure hunt, or to GPS a model airplane's abilities: there's a lot a GPS device can accomplish, and Fun With GPS covers it all.

This is a spectacular book that treats GPS with a light (and fun) touch without any sacrifice of technical substance. Though aimed at beginners, GPS savants will find it equally useful, both for elegant insights as well as ideas on how to teach others about GPS. I teach land navigation and regularly consult this book for inspiration regarding new ways to keep the material fresh in my classes.

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!