David Parlett

A little dry at times, but a good read if you're interested in board games. (I have to say, I might advise skipping right past the chapters on racing and chase games. Some interesting things there, but not games that you'll want to hunt down probably).

One odd note is that this book feels like it was written closer to the 80s than the late 90s. I suspect that earlier drafts of this work existed about when the author wrote on card games in the 80s and it was revised before being published. show more (Some of the citations do refer to newer research and games).

Some warnings:

The book focuses mostly on two player abstract games, which is fine with me as I love those. Sadly due to the printing it misses some interesting ones like the gipf series.

If you're not a board game buff or fan, don't expect a lot of time spent on games you know. (I find that when people say "usual board games" they mean monopoly, scrabble, clue/cluedo and then from there they typically actually know games that just are happenstance of generational and region preferences. They typically don't realize this though.) Also, it has a slight slant towards British publishing and games, but I didn't really notice it that much. (For example, there's plenty of nods to Sid Sackson, the notable American game designer and collector). There's less actual bias towards British games given the fact it's an Oxford University Press book.

Card games are not covered in this book, which is a bit of a pity. There's plenty of card games that don't use a traditional deck that are ignored by most history of card games. They get sidelined here as well.

This book seems harder to find than it should be, It would be really nice to get a reprint w/ perhaps with some updates. show less

Parlett is a very good writer. Very few people can write down rules of card games clearly and unambiguously, but Parlett has this skill. There are fewer games in this book than usually in general card game books, but the presentations of games are more extensive and more in-depth. For each game, there is also an extensive strategy section in addition to the rules.

For each game there are also www links in the book, even a link to my canasta guide.

The title is somewhat misleading; I had thought it referred to classic board games in America such as Monopoly and Scrabble. Instead, it references classic games of strategy such as dice and versions of backgammon (and many others), categorizing them by format. The few illustrations, by the way, are paltry and disappointingly bland. The text is fine, although fairly dry and scholastic.

I guess this is the sort of thing nobody buys anymore, a victim to the internet.