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Hobby Games: The 100 Best

I'm a tad late with this, I know, but I just finished reading Hobby Games: The 100 Best, which I liked a lot. It's a collection of hundred short essays on games. The authors are a variety of games...

Posted by Mikko on March 1, 2009 7:27 PM

My card game book

I just took a look at the final layout of my card game book. Now I only need to do the index and make the last check for mistakes, and it's done. The book goes to the printers about week...

Posted by Mikko on February 29, 2008 7:20 PM

Tarots

I finished reading the second volume of A History of Games Played with the Tarot Pack (haven't received the first volume yet, it's coming from US while the second one was sent from UK). It's a marvellous book, highly recommended...

Posted by Mikko on October 13, 2007 7:41 PM

Second book!

Today's mail brought me a publishing contract to sign: I'm writing another book! Well, I'm already 75 pages in, so getting the contract was a bit of a relief... My topic is, as some of you might've already guessed, traditional...

Posted by Mikko on September 19, 2007 12:58 PM

Card game books

I'm looking for good books on card games. I don't want just rule compilations or strategy books, but basically anything else on card games. I've already ordered David Parlett's History of Card Games, but what else is there? Any suggestions?  ...

Posted by Mikko on August 21, 2007 10:12 AM

Working on the book

Almost two weeks of work done on the book, half days basically (I'm working in the mornings and during the day when the baby sleeps, few hours a day most days) and I've already covered over 80 games (these are...

Posted by Mikko on January 19, 2007 4:30 PM

Board game book

I'm currently working on a book on board games. I happen to know someone, who was just recently made the publishing manager of a Finnish publisher looking to expand their catalogue of non-fiction books, and he asked if I was...

Posted by Mikko on January 14, 2007 5:41 PM

Word Freak

I just finished reading Word Freak, Stefan Fatsis' excellent book on the crazy world of competitive Scrabble. I'd heard lots of praise for the book, and no wonder: it's one of the more interesting books on board games I've read....

Posted by Mikko on December 17, 2006 5:05 PM

BookMooch

This is off-topic, but interesting enough. Reading is one of my passions outside board games. My tastes can be a bit difficult: many of the books I'd like to read are not translated (or are translated with quite a delay)...

Posted by Mikko on October 5, 2006 11:32 AM

Alastair Reynolds and Puerto Rico

If you're into science fiction (with a hard emphasis on science, not just any speculative fiction), you should be aware of Alastair Reynolds' work. Particularly the trilogy of Revolution Space, Redemption Ark and Absolution Gap should be on your reading...

Posted by Mikko on May 19, 2006 2:25 PM

Dune

I wrote a review of Dune (in Finnish). I haven't played Dune in ages - there's not a mention of it in this blog, for example, and I haven't missed many sessions since I started writing. Usually if I own...

Posted by Mikko on February 19, 2005 1:22 PM

Book on connection games

An interesting book was advertised on Little Golem boards. Connection Games : Variations on a Theme is written by Cameron Browne. Here's a summary from the publisher's website: A comprehensive study of the connection game genre, Connection Games provides a...

Posted by Mikko on January 20, 2005 5:55 PM

One Jump Ahead

I finished reading One Jump Ahead : Challenging Human Supremacy in Checkers, which was rather interesting book. It's written by Jonathan Schaeffer, who designed Chinook, the first computer program to win a human world championship. Chinook played Checkers, a traditional...

Posted by Mikko on January 17, 2005 10:21 AM

Flaschenteufel

Here's what I wrote about Flaschenteufel on Spielfrieks. It provoked a reply from Joe Huber, the author of the original Games Journal review. He told that the new edition changes aren't just cosmetic - some cards have changed colour and...

Posted by Mikko on November 21, 2003 6:04 PM

Dice Games Properly Explained

Well, it took two weeks, but Dice Games Properly Explained hit my mailbox today. I've almost read it already and expect to finish soon. It's a wonderful book! Full of games and as the title says, the games are properly...

Posted by Mikko on July 7, 2003 9:07 PM

Cosmic Pig

More crazy stuff from the Seattle Cosmic: a variant of Cosmic Encounter, which makes the game more like the Interstellar Pig. Take a look at the Cosmic Pig. If I played Cosmic Encounter more often, that'd be something I'd love...

Posted by Mikko on May 15, 2003 8:24 PM

Interstellar Pig = Cosmic Encounter?

Ron Hale-Evans has written a very interesting article about the Interstellar Pig in the Seattle Cosmic Wiki. Interstellar Pig is a book (mentioned here before), which features an interesting game as it's main theme. The game, says Ron Hale-Evans, bears...

Posted by Mikko on May 6, 2003 9:43 AM

Books about games

I've been reading books about games lately. Mostly books describing the rules to various card games, including the classic of classics: Hoyle's Games. It's not the original version from the 18th century, but a modern version from the 50's. Still,...

Posted by Mikko on March 20, 2003 9:08 PM