Around the World in 80 Games, from HarperCollins UK, is mathematician Marcus du Sautoy’s romp through his favorite games. When he sketched out a plan for this book, he just happened to write out 80 games that he wanted to go through, and the parallel to Jules Verne felt right.
du Sautoy digs into the mathematics behind each game, as well as the history and social context of each one, and in between, spends some time trying to define: what makes a game a game?
We’ve been searching for a long time to find a comprehensive history of playing cards, and this comes close. It certainly was a breath of fresh air after the only other comprehensive book on playing cards we could find - although to be fair to Catherine Perry Hargrave, you can’t really compare two books written almost 100 years apart!
du Sautoy is clear from the beginning: there’s no way a single book could capture humanity’s entire game library. He picked the ones that he felt gave him the most robust story, covering as much of the 7 continents as he could, while diving into the mathematically juiciest, most historically important ones (like chess and backgammon).
The book was fun, we recommend it if you’re interested in learning more about the long histories of games from all around the world. And the philosophical questions du Sautoy explores are really interesting: What are games? What is play?
Are games a manufactured total divorce from reality, allowing a completely creative act of imagination? If a game is to gain or develop a skill, isn’t that just work then? For a game to be a game, does it need to be a pastime - literally passing time - making up meaning for life?
Around the World in 80 Games takes you through these games:
The Middle East
1. Backgammon
2. The Royal Game of Ur
3. Senet
4. Rolling Bones
5. Symmetrical Dice
6. The Doubling Cube
The Arabian Sea: What is a Game and Why do We Play?
7. Homo Ludens
8. Animal Games
9. Language Games
10. The Grasshopper’s Games
India
11. Chess
12. Carrom
13. Ludo
14. Snakes and Ladders
15. Ganjifa Cards
16. The Buddha’s Banned Games
17. Hopscotch
The South China Sea: The Maths of Games and the Games of Maths
18. Chocolate Chili Roulette
19. Nim
20. The Ultimatum Game
21. The Prisoner’s Dilemma
China
22. Go
23. Chinese Chess
24. Pick-up Sticks
25. Dominoes
26. Mah-jong
27. Zi Pai, Khanhoo, and the Origins of Playing Cards
The East China Sea: Cards
28. Whist
29. Bridge
30. Spades, Hearts, Diamonds, and Clubs
31. Lady Charlotte and the Game of Parliament
32. Tarot
Japan
33. Hanafuda
34. Pokémon Cards
The North Pacific Ocean: The Psychology of Games
35. Dungeons & Dragons
36. MangaHigh
37. Cranium
Australasia
38. Mu Torere
The South Pacific Ocean: Games in the Arts
39. Cludeo
40. Azad and the Player of Games
41. Games and Riddles
42. Theatre Games
43. Mozart’s Dice Game
South and Central America
44. Mexican Bingo
45. Jogo do Bicho
46. Adugo and Komikan
47. Sapo
48. Truco
49. Period or Dude or Liar’s Dice
50. Pitz, the Mayan Ball Game
The United States
51. The Casino
52. The Mansion of Happiness
53. Monopoly
54. Scrabble
55. Wordle
56. Rock Paper Scissors
57. Ticket to Ride
The Atlantic Ocean: Computer Games
58. Prince of Persia
59. Spacewar!
60. Tetris
61. The Game of Life
62. Noughts and Crosses or Tic-Tac-Toe
Africa
63. Mancala
64. Gulugufe and Fanorona
65. Achi
66. Bolotoudou
67. Nine Men’s Morris
68. Agram
Europe