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. (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.… (más)

David Parlett's The A-Z of Card Games, published in Oxford Paperback Reference series, is the best compilation of card game rules I've ever seen, at least in book format. The book is full of interesting games from all around the world - the book has some Finnish games, too! It's an intelligent book and takes card games seriously, unlike many other rule books that seem to be written on autopilot.

Parlett's book passes even the hardest test: it includes few games played with the Tarot pack. That's something fairly rare and always a sign of a good book. This book isn't perfect, though: there are some errors in the rules, but fortunately those are fairly rare. Parlett's style isn't probably the easiest, so I'd recommend this book to people who already know how to play card games and want to learn new, interesting games. This isn't the best first book for card game newbies.

(Original review at my review blog)… (más)

Most books on card games tend to focus on rules and rules alone. If there are any references to the history of card games, they tend to propagate one of the popular false myths (myth #1: crusaders brought the cards to Europe, myth #2: gypsies brought the cards to Europe, myth #3: Marco Polo brought the cards to Europe). David Parlett comes to rescue, however: his book focuses on the history and development of the card games in Western Europe, starting from their introduction in 1370s.

Parlett describes plenty of games and traces their development and evolution. Most of the book covers trick-taking games, which is of course obvious to a book covering European games. His history seems valid and well-researched and he has a knack of describing games well. While this isn't a rule book, many games are described well enough that an experienced card player can play them.

There aren't that many good books on the topic - this one's the only one I've read. If you're at all interested in the topic, this one's highly recommended.

(Original review at my review blog.)… (más)