Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

To own a deck of cards is to own an infinite source of entertainment. Sure, there are movies and video games and other such newfangled contraptions that offer a higher degree of appeal, but they have their flaws. What if the power goes out? What if you're visited by an elderly person? What if you're afraid of you and your children's brains turning to indiscriminate mush? The Victorians had these problems all figured out, and they didn't even have Google. What excuse do we have? In addition to owning a deck of cards however, you will need to know how to use them. What use is this low-tech solution if you have to spend half an hour scouring the internet for semi-coherent instructions every time you want to try a new game? So, to complete your self-sufficiency, you'll need a book. I found the instructions in this book to be very clear, and satisfactorily thorough. In comparison to books like Hoyle's, or McNeely's Ultimate Book, which to me read more like Encyclopedias than actual learning guides, you shouldn't ever need to consult Google in order to successfully learn how to play the games. At times I did find there were gaps. Once, during my and my partner's first-ever game of Spite and Malice (which is a delightfully horrible game), we realized only halfway through playing that we were allowed to look at our own hands. Someone familiar with card games might laugh, but as a novice you won't take anything for granted. So, once in a while, there are things I wouldn't mind the author taking a little extra space to clarify. Other than that, the book is awesome. I especially love the clean layout of the pages, which presents the information in a streamlined, organized, and fun way. The games are sorted to allow you to be able to quickly find and choose them based on who you're playing with, and how many are playing. There are games you can play with children, and games you can play with professional poker experts (although there's no poker). I mostly play cards with only one other person, so I was concerned there wouldn't be enough two-person games. I was wrong, and the book makes them easy for me to pick out. The games are sorted into chapters. Chapter 1 is Capturing Games, Chapter 2 Shedding Games, Chapter 3 Patience Games, Chapter 4 Rummy Games, and Chapter 4 Trick-Taking Games. There are descriptions of each of these categories in the Introduction, as well as a small Glossary of important card-playing terms that you can refer to. On the actual pages describing how to play each game, the author lists the difficulty of the game, the number of players required to play it, and the object of the game at the top of the page, next to the name of the game. For visual learners, there are pictures and examples along with the body of the text. Unless you just collect books about cards, this is the one to get. It's concise without being overwhelming. There are 57 games total, each one broken down into practical steps. It actually teaches you how to play, and and it looks nice while doing it.