The Penguin Book of Card Games: Everything You Need to Know to Play Over 250 Games

There's nothing to dislike here, unless you have a short attention span and just want quick bullet points on how to play games.I personally love the history and descriptions included, which aren't that long or tedious at all. It's like rules with a side of trivia!Finding new games to play can be like a fun little journey flipping through pages, but if you are in the mood for something in particular, it's easy enough just to go straight to that section and find what you need.I suppose some people might prefer the book were organized differently, but being that I barely knew 4 card games when I bought this, I actually really like starting with some I know (or thought I knew) and then reading about other games that are like it. This, I feel, makes it easier to learn something new without it being so foreign you have to keep referring back to the pages.I didn't even realize I've been playing "Go Fish" wrong ever since I was a child, or that there was a game by that name played in Italy in the 15th century but the rules of that game were lost to time!

So far I have found this book to be an excellent and fairly comprehensive reference for traditional card games. I have read the introductory material and rules for a few games and found the writing style to be accessible and the rules to be as comprehensible as I would expect.I expect to get lots of use out of this book and I am very happy with my purchase.About the formatting; before purchasing I read a number of reviews stating that this book suffered from some serious OCR and formatting issues. While I am sure the authors of those reviews were not imagining things, as of now (April 2014) the book seems to have been fixed. I did notice that most of the diagrams and tables are images and some of them take up entire pages; I am guessing that this might have been their solution to the formatting issues. The image solution doesn't bother me as the text in them is an appropriate size, although you might have an issue you if you can only read really big text sizes.

the first thing you have to understand is that no book of card games will have every card game known to man, it's just not possible. However, the Penguin book is a great start on a thorough compendium of many, many of the common and uncommon Lee known card games out there today. I was pleasantly surprised to find a game for my childhood called 31, and then perplexed not to find a more recently played card game called kings in the corner. It's just the way this goes. You'll win some, and you'll lose some. my biggest complaint with the book is actually that the font is very small, meaning that it's difficult to read for anyone with vision impairments. The nice thing is that it's also available in Kindle format so you can take that into consideration when purchasing. I very much like that this book, unlike many others, does have an index so that you can look games up.

Absolutely love this book and cannot recommend it strongly enough for anyone looking to learn new card games or maybe just interested in learning the history of games. Only people who wish I hadn’t purchased this are friends and family, because I keep bringing in a new game to try, just as they’re getting used to the last one!

This is a comprehensive book on card games. The rules are explained economically and brief historical contexts are given. The rules are clear. This book can turn a simple deck of playing cards into a library of different experiences from the frantic and potentially violent Egyptian Ratscrew to cerebral trick-taking games like Whist or Bridge.

Too much info mostly for someone that wants allot of detail

This is a much less formal encyclopedia of card games than several others I've read. I like how Parlett inserts his opinions and background on the games rather than just listing them and diving into the rules.I'm glad I bought it on kindle so now I can pull up the rules on my phone anytime I need a reminder. One thing that is not great about the kindle version is that many, many passages havewordsruntogether which is quiteannoying. I haven't bought many kindle books so I'm not sure if that's a common problem or not.

This book is great if you are in need of learning card games. With most card game books you need to read them then watch 10 youtube videos then maybe you could play. With this book you could actually just play after you read it. We keep it in our camper and are learning all kinds of new games. Great book!

The recent edition (Penguin Books; 2nd edition; ISBN-10‏: ‎0141037873) is a very cheap paperback with pages almost of toilet paper quality. David Parlett's work is an encyclopedic book meant to serve as a reference for many years, not a cheap crime novel meant to be read once and discarded.The contents of the book are top-notch, though, hence 5/5 rating.

Bought as a present for a poker-loving couple, to give them other game ideas more suitable for just two players. Having scanned through it briefly before wrapping it, I was impressed with the detail given to such a large number of games and variations. Would recommend for fans of card games of all ages.

Not useful

Easy to check the rules.Well written, explain the rules well.

Full of history, and great coverage. A good read for card game enthusiasts even if you don't play often. It's not designed to be the absolute rulebook for any game-go to affiliated organizations and associations affiliated with the games for that. The author has written the book with the intent to have broad coverage of card games all over the world, their histories, and regional variations and permutations.