Ancient Board Games and Solitaire Games From Around the World: Combined Volumes One and Two Paperback – September 1, 2018

There are 52 different game boards in this book and the game boards are printed in beautiful colors. The pages measures 8.5 inches by 11 inches and this is the perfect size for photocopying individual game boards using a color printer/copier. We occasionally have power failures due to bad weather. However, since I have printed copies of the games my family likes best, we can now play these games while we are waiting for our power to be restored. The copied pages lie flat on the kitchen table and this makes playing the game easy because the game pieces don’t slide around on the page. Having multiple copies of the solitaire games allows more than one child to play the same exact solitaire game at the same time and this eliminates complaints that another child is taking too long to play the game. All the game instructions are clearly written and easy to understand. I highly recommend this game book. I also purchased some high quality plastic game pawns available on Amazon as a separate product.

Its hard for any one book to meet all needs. This one genuinely does seem addressed to his grandchildren to try out a large variety of board games on paper designs he offers, so its very accessible. I was struck by the number of different games that can be played on a checker board and checkers, and an excellent variety of solitaire game patterns and solitaire solutions. For history and connection and even broader selection I turn to Board Games of The World H.L. Fourie also readily available here on Amazon. There are also multiple websites for board games.

I wish this book was longer and delved a little more deeply into the history and evolution of the games, especially the ones with significant rules controversies. That being said, this book provides enough information and board diagrams to actually play the games and provides a good jumping off point to further research any game that catches your eye.