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Around the World in Eighty Games: From Tarot to Tic-Tac-Toe, Catan to Chutes and Ladders, a Mathematician Unlocks the Secrets of the World's Greatest Games
“A delightful global tour of how humans think and play, led by one of our finest mathematical storytellers.” — Ben Orlin, author of Math Games with Bad Drawings
Where should you move first in Connect 4? What is the best property in Monopoly? And how can pi help you win rock paper scissors?
Spanning millennia, oceans and continents, countries and cultures, Around the World in Eighty Games gleefully explores how mathematics and games have always been deeply intertwined. Renowned mathematician Marcus du Sautoy investigates how games provided the first opportunities for deep mathematical insight into the world, how understanding math can help us play games better, and how both math and games are integral to human psychology and culture.
For as long as there have been people, there have been games, and for nearly as long, we have been exploring and discovering mathematics. A grand adventure, Around the World in Eighty Games teaches us not just how games are won, but how they, and their math, shape who we are.
Where should you move first in Connect 4? What is the best property in Monopoly? And how can pi help you win rock paper scissors?
Spanning millennia, oceans and continents, countries and cultures, Around the World in Eighty Games gleefully explores how mathematics and games have always been deeply intertwined. Renowned mathematician Marcus du Sautoy investigates how games provided the first opportunities for deep mathematical insight into the world, how understanding math can help us play games better, and how both math and games are integral to human psychology and culture.
For as long as there have been people, there have been games, and for nearly as long, we have been exploring and discovering mathematics. A grand adventure, Around the World in Eighty Games teaches us not just how games are won, but how they, and their math, shape who we are.
369 pages, Hardcover
First published November 7, 2023
267 people are currently reading
2337 people want to read
About the author
Marcus du Sautoy
32 books486 followersMarcus Peter Francis du Sautoy, OBE is the Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of 카지노싸이트 and a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 135 reviews
April 16, 2024
I really, really wanted to like this book. I like board games, game theory, travel, history, and culture. This book purports to have all these things!
What I instead found was an incredibly disorganized hacky attempt at... something.
For someone who loves games so much, du Sautoy sure doesn't follow the rules he sets out for himself.
There are not 80 games here. I'm really not sure how many games there are here because the organization scheme is insane. Sure, there are sections here labeled "Chess" and "Pandemic". These make sense. But then other sections are for entire categories of games, such as "games by women", while other sections are for things that aren't even games at all, such as "games animals play" and "the psychology of games".
Even when a section is labeled in such a way that it seems like it's going to be about a single game, du Sautoy is just as likely to talk about that game as he is to take a wild tangent and talk about other games.
This book in its first edition is VERY poorly edited. Multiple times two paragraphs are clearly two different drafts of the same paragraph, but the editor forgot to delete the old draft. This leads to awkward moments where you will read about the origin of a game, and then immediately read a paragraph about the origin of the same game, but now it has a different origin. Embarrassing!
Du Sautoy starts the chapter on China by saying that he doesn't understand Chinese language or Chinese culture. He then talks about a number of games that he doesn't understand and doesn't know the rules to. Good job with your research, Marcus.
The majority of the text on any given game is a series of impossible to prove anecdotes about the mysterious origins of old games. "Legend has it" comes up dozens of times in this volume. I'm sure these anecdotes are fun when he appears as a talking head on various BBC programs but that doesn't make them true or informative.
The entire book has an EXTREMELY imperialist Brit-centric viewpoint. The amount of hoops he jumps through to use passive language about how British people "were stationed" in India and discovered various Indian games is awkward. He blunders through so many cultural faux-pas with the attitude of someone who feels that he "just gets it" because he has the rights to the entire world. Whether he is dismissing ALL African games as "basically just variations on the same theme" or scratching his head at the MYSTERIOUS ORIENT, du Sautoy is sure to make a fool of himself at least once a chapter.
Oh, and he is a terrible math communicator. The sections where he dives into the Math of a given game are bizarre, opaque, and usually non-sequiters themselves. They are rarely about HOW a game is played or HOW to win a game, they are usually about the geometry of a game board or something equally pointless. At least, that's why I think is going on. He makes so many leaps and skips so many steps (I guess he just assumes that everyone is on the same level as him, mathematically) that I often finished a section having no idea what was even going on.
The ONLY reason I am not giving this 1 star is that I do not feel that the book was written in bad faith. du Sautoy is not a con artist selling a bill of goods. He is not using this to shill his podcast (which I just assume he has. He MUST have a podcast, right?). It doesn't even seem to be a vanity project. He genuinely seems passionate about the topic. So it gets 2 stars.
But honestly, absolutely no one needs to read this, and anyone who picks it up will be extremely frustrated. It's one of the worst books I've read in the past 5 years.
What I instead found was an incredibly disorganized hacky attempt at... something.
For someone who loves games so much, du Sautoy sure doesn't follow the rules he sets out for himself.
There are not 80 games here. I'm really not sure how many games there are here because the organization scheme is insane. Sure, there are sections here labeled "Chess" and "Pandemic". These make sense. But then other sections are for entire categories of games, such as "games by women", while other sections are for things that aren't even games at all, such as "games animals play" and "the psychology of games".
Even when a section is labeled in such a way that it seems like it's going to be about a single game, du Sautoy is just as likely to talk about that game as he is to take a wild tangent and talk about other games.
This book in its first edition is VERY poorly edited. Multiple times two paragraphs are clearly two different drafts of the same paragraph, but the editor forgot to delete the old draft. This leads to awkward moments where you will read about the origin of a game, and then immediately read a paragraph about the origin of the same game, but now it has a different origin. Embarrassing!
Du Sautoy starts the chapter on China by saying that he doesn't understand Chinese language or Chinese culture. He then talks about a number of games that he doesn't understand and doesn't know the rules to. Good job with your research, Marcus.
The majority of the text on any given game is a series of impossible to prove anecdotes about the mysterious origins of old games. "Legend has it" comes up dozens of times in this volume. I'm sure these anecdotes are fun when he appears as a talking head on various BBC programs but that doesn't make them true or informative.
The entire book has an EXTREMELY imperialist Brit-centric viewpoint. The amount of hoops he jumps through to use passive language about how British people "were stationed" in India and discovered various Indian games is awkward. He blunders through so many cultural faux-pas with the attitude of someone who feels that he "just gets it" because he has the rights to the entire world. Whether he is dismissing ALL African games as "basically just variations on the same theme" or scratching his head at the MYSTERIOUS ORIENT, du Sautoy is sure to make a fool of himself at least once a chapter.
Oh, and he is a terrible math communicator. The sections where he dives into the Math of a given game are bizarre, opaque, and usually non-sequiters themselves. They are rarely about HOW a game is played or HOW to win a game, they are usually about the geometry of a game board or something equally pointless. At least, that's why I think is going on. He makes so many leaps and skips so many steps (I guess he just assumes that everyone is on the same level as him, mathematically) that I often finished a section having no idea what was even going on.
The ONLY reason I am not giving this 1 star is that I do not feel that the book was written in bad faith. du Sautoy is not a con artist selling a bill of goods. He is not using this to shill his podcast (which I just assume he has. He MUST have a podcast, right?). It doesn't even seem to be a vanity project. He genuinely seems passionate about the topic. So it gets 2 stars.
But honestly, absolutely no one needs to read this, and anyone who picks it up will be extremely frustrated. It's one of the worst books I've read in the past 5 years.
February 1, 2024
A rather charming trip around the world of games.
This book covers the history and cultural importance of many of the games from around the world all the way from the Royal Game of Ur to the Settlers of Catan with special care to cover the most important games from every continent. You could say that the book is structured as a voyage across the continents with interesting interludes about the philosophy of games while traversing the oceans. During these interludes he would ask questions such as: What are Games? What is a solved game? Are solved games worth playing? What role does cheating play? And many more.
As the author is a mathematician while talking about some of these games he would go on tangents such as game theory, probability, Markov chains and symmetry. The mathematics are very approachable for all, but looking at the other reviews I see that many were disappointed with the amount of math (not enough). This comes down to expectations, but it is understandable because of the books subtitle and description heavy emphasis on the mathematics of these games.
Due to some contemporary references such as NFTs use for trading card games this book is already starting to age, which is a shame. If there is ever a second edition all you would need to do is adjust the books description and remove these references and you would have a timeless classic on your hands.
And finally the game the author suggests you to play with this book by letting the dice decide what chapter you should read next is charming and all, but the books structure isn't really made for that.
This book covers the history and cultural importance of many of the games from around the world all the way from the Royal Game of Ur to the Settlers of Catan with special care to cover the most important games from every continent. You could say that the book is structured as a voyage across the continents with interesting interludes about the philosophy of games while traversing the oceans. During these interludes he would ask questions such as: What are Games? What is a solved game? Are solved games worth playing? What role does cheating play? And many more.
As the author is a mathematician while talking about some of these games he would go on tangents such as game theory, probability, Markov chains and symmetry. The mathematics are very approachable for all, but looking at the other reviews I see that many were disappointed with the amount of math (not enough). This comes down to expectations, but it is understandable because of the books subtitle and description heavy emphasis on the mathematics of these games.
Due to some contemporary references such as NFTs use for trading card games this book is already starting to age, which is a shame. If there is ever a second edition all you would need to do is adjust the books description and remove these references and you would have a timeless classic on your hands.
And finally the game the author suggests you to play with this book by letting the dice decide what chapter you should read next is charming and all, but the books structure isn't really made for that.
June 3, 2024
Read the introduction, tried the author's suggestion (play the book as a game), gave up. Started over. Read the whole book, didn't give up - and didn't learn much. It was just okay.
What we have here is an author's personal collection of articles about games - sometimes a specific game, but sometimes a genre, an idea, a website or even a book. Part of what drew him to games in general and some of these topics in specific is math, which he attempts to demonstrate. This book doesn't teach math well. The geography (around the world) provides some connection and history. You may be getting the sense that this book wasn't great. Run with that.
The author is a professor of mathematics at Oxford, and I enjoyed his book . Better editing might have helped here, and certainly before he claimed the book could be read in a scattered fashion (and even included a "scorecard" at the end), he should have had *someone* try that out. I found the articles too linked to each other for that to work.
I learned that Tarot was probably originally a game, and a lot of games linked to gambling early on. It took me a month to read it, off and on, because it didn't run together in any narrative. Honestly, 80 wikipedia articles would be more interesting. Cannot recommend.
What we have here is an author's personal collection of articles about games - sometimes a specific game, but sometimes a genre, an idea, a website or even a book. Part of what drew him to games in general and some of these topics in specific is math, which he attempts to demonstrate. This book doesn't teach math well. The geography (around the world) provides some connection and history. You may be getting the sense that this book wasn't great. Run with that.
The author is a professor of mathematics at Oxford, and I enjoyed his book . Better editing might have helped here, and certainly before he claimed the book could be read in a scattered fashion (and even included a "scorecard" at the end), he should have had *someone* try that out. I found the articles too linked to each other for that to work.
I learned that Tarot was probably originally a game, and a lot of games linked to gambling early on. It took me a month to read it, off and on, because it didn't run together in any narrative. Honestly, 80 wikipedia articles would be more interesting. Cannot recommend.
April 12, 2024
Discussing history, invention, spread, evolution and of course the math behind winning strategies to various games. Yes, there are discussing of Fibonacci number sequences, quadratic equations, binary numbers, and even more, that for those of us who haven’t used much of our Algebra, Geometry or Calculus since leaving high school kind of tilt the head sideways and go, “huh”.
Maybe this isn’t late night reading to fall asleep to.
Good news! Still entertaining if one wants to skip over those bits and just plow on.
One caveat, as you can see from the quotes and what these game represent, symbolic warfare, etc., there are more geopolitical comments than one might expect. I actually deleted a quote because of evolving contemporary events--so heads up.
Discussing what constitutes a game-
Why we play games and what happens physiologically
Discussing bicheiros in Brazil, a lottery-like game:
Maybe this isn’t late night reading to fall asleep to.
Good news! Still entertaining if one wants to skip over those bits and just plow on.
One caveat, as you can see from the quotes and what these game represent, symbolic warfare, etc., there are more geopolitical comments than one might expect. I actually deleted a quote because of evolving contemporary events--so heads up.
Discussing what constitutes a game-
The element of competition or collaboration with others is what makes the difference. What, then, is an activity like solitaire? Is it a puzzle or a game, when to win the game, you must compete against the pack of cards? And what about computer games, pitting the player against the computer code. Wittgenstein is right: game is a very slippery concept to pin down.
If the Middle East gave us one of the best racing games (backgammon), then India is the birthplace of one of the greatest war games that humans have invented: the game of chess.
Since its creation in 1969, the Nobel Prize for economics has been awarded to fifteen game theorists [. . .]
Why we play games and what happens physiologically
It turns out that we get a big dopamine kick, comparable to having sex, when we turn down an unfair offer. [. . . ] Being intoxicated seems to increase the value assigned to not being screwed over. -willing to sacrifice for anything less than a 50-50 split.
“Go is to chess what philosophy is to double-entry accounting.” [Trevani, Shibumi]
Hanafuda cards have played a crucial role in the history of gaming by helping to kick-start what became one the biggest video game manufacturers in the world. It all began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi decide to open a card shop in Kyoto in September 1889 to sell Hanafuda cards painted on mulberry tree bark. He called the company the he founded Nintendo Karuta.
Discussing bicheiros in Brazil, a lottery-like game:
Understanding the odds a setting rewards accordingly meant that barely literate punters were able to do levels of arithmetic and assess probabilities well beyond what the average student in school might expect to be able to master.
January 7, 2024
I *love* maths and I *love* games. I went to a book signing Marcus did for this book and I absolutely loved his talk. Funny, engaging, interesting - I would definitely go and see him speak again. This book was certainly interesting, and I learnt loads of fascinating titbits of information, but i must say I did find it a big of a slog at points. My frustration was partly that I’m not terribly interested in philosophy (what is a game?) or the history of games (I realised this fact when reading the history of dominoes). Like I said, I really love maths, but I also found his “maths boxes” hard to follow. The equations and notations were less accessible than I would have hoped for. I think more diagrams and even photos of some of the beautiful cards or boards he talked about would have added a little more spark to this book. That all said, I loved the real world examples he included like when AlphaGo, a machine learning based computer, played the worlds best go player and who won, how the number zero was banned as the devil’s number by the ignorant west, and the brilliant story of his rock paper scissors battle. I also found the chapter on tarot very enlightening, which is something I never thought I’d find myself say! A quick look at my want to read list is also testament to how inspiring I found this read - it is now full of books he mentions in the various chapters of his “journey”. I did very much enjoy this book but my tips for enjoying it are 1) don’t play it like a game as he suggests - it does have a narrative you should follow, and 2) it’s a great toilet book - one you can dip in and out of without losing momentum. Expectations suitably managed, enjoy! I formally award it 3.14159 stars ⭐️
January 25, 2024
This is not the type of book which I would enjoy reading for lengthy periods, but it is certainly informative and enjoyable. The author, who is a renowned mathematician, has explored historical and world-wide games . He has demonstrated how mathematics and cultures are deeply intwined and can help us to better understand and play our involvement in these games.
November 12, 2023
fun! but not enough math, not enough game theory.
February 13, 2024
I most appreciated the history and the older games described. I think the format, kind of biographical and penned from "Around the World in 80 days" while also explaining a few math concepts, while also describing rules for games, what makes them fun, their anthropology, and how to win, was altogether too ambitious. With 80 games to cover, I often felt some things over or under discussed, and I never got into a good flow with reading. I would want to know more about a game or a place and then get some calculations, that maybe I'm a little too slow for, but that I sometimes didn't follow.
Some parts felt like he was explaining to me how to play a game and why it isn't fun. I am sure he didn't intend that, but I think the goals of the narrative were a little at odds.
Anyway, I discovered some things about what I like or look for in games and I discovered a whole slew of interesting games, which is really enough to say I liked it.
Some parts felt like he was explaining to me how to play a game and why it isn't fun. I am sure he didn't intend that, but I think the goals of the narrative were a little at odds.
Anyway, I discovered some things about what I like or look for in games and I discovered a whole slew of interesting games, which is really enough to say I liked it.
September 24, 2024
5 stars.
I loved this tour-de-force of different games played around the world. This does not appear to be popular opinion, and I understand the criticisms that others are alluding to, but I had so much fun reading this that I'm prepared to ignore those downsides. Going on the keepers shelf because I didn't fully get all the mathematics that was discussed, and would like to go back to it some day. Oh, and maybe read the book in the "gamey" way that the author suggests, instead of cover-to-cover like I did this time around.
I loved this tour-de-force of different games played around the world. This does not appear to be popular opinion, and I understand the criticisms that others are alluding to, but I had so much fun reading this that I'm prepared to ignore those downsides. Going on the keepers shelf because I didn't fully get all the mathematics that was discussed, and would like to go back to it some day. Oh, and maybe read the book in the "gamey" way that the author suggests, instead of cover-to-cover like I did this time around.
April 13, 2025
80 games was too many - every game got 3 or 4 pages, and that included a rough rules explanation - there ended up being little to say about so many games, even the interesting ones. The math was rushed, and the personal anecdotes felt too simple.
I like the idea of learning something about the forerunners of modern board games, or the way geography and culture influence the games we play, or the math that underpins these games, but pushing all of this into one book didn't work.
I like the idea of learning something about the forerunners of modern board games, or the way geography and culture influence the games we play, or the math that underpins these games, but pushing all of this into one book didn't work.
October 11, 2024
A fun read of the history of games, across various cultures and eras.
May 12, 2024
3.75 stars rounded up to 4. The book covers different types of games from around the world (though more than 80 games are covered unlike what the title says). The books talks about the history of games and games playing, what constitutes a good game, game dynamics, the psychology of games and the impact of gaming on human culture. With this sweeping scope it succeeds well at some and not so much at others.
I loved to uncover the mathematics behind some of the games that I have played in the past such as chess, backgammon, carrom and many more. It was also fun to learn about few other games and their origins which I had not heard before. However the book does have it's flaws, one of them is it is trying to cover too much. I think I would have liked the book more if lesser games would have been covered in more depth. Though I did like the meandering exploration of the game, the lack of depth and incoherent or incomplete explanation of some games spoil an otherwise fun book definitely worth reading.
I loved to uncover the mathematics behind some of the games that I have played in the past such as chess, backgammon, carrom and many more. It was also fun to learn about few other games and their origins which I had not heard before. However the book does have it's flaws, one of them is it is trying to cover too much. I think I would have liked the book more if lesser games would have been covered in more depth. Though I did like the meandering exploration of the game, the lack of depth and incoherent or incomplete explanation of some games spoil an otherwise fun book definitely worth reading.
March 18, 2025
The structure of the book does it an injustice. What I thought was a playful title was actually a literal description of its contents.
Eighty different topics is too much to handle for this form of narrative. The result is dozens of descriptions of equal length—discussions of Go and Chess take the same number of pages as those of Bingo and Hopscotch, and in every case there’s not enough room to introduce any meaningful insights into any game beyond its rules.
Eighty different topics is too much to handle for this form of narrative. The result is dozens of descriptions of equal length—discussions of Go and Chess take the same number of pages as those of Bingo and Hopscotch, and in every case there’s not enough room to introduce any meaningful insights into any game beyond its rules.
January 8, 2024
The dice rolling to make the book into a game is a sweet idea, but seems to make it a worse read in my opinion. The book seems fairly surface level for the most part, but is quite entertaining nonetheless.
January 2, 2024
Fun, easy read. Some math-y parts but not excessive.
3.5 stars, rounding up because I can't come up with a good reason to round down.
3.5 stars, rounding up because I can't come up with a good reason to round down.
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October 3, 2024Really feels like this book is a very specific combination of things I am really interested in
December 16, 2024
Overall I liked this book but I can see why it might not be for everyone. It's not clear from the blurp just how much the authors love of maths feeds into this book. I also found that at times the author comes across as arrogant and he has a habit of going off on tangents. Despite those issues the content is interesting and the book runs through the origins of games you've likely not heard of but have importance throughout history. The mathematical asides (in handy skippable boxes for those not interested) are great if you want to know more about the mathematics behind some of these games.
November 3, 2024
Fascinating trip around the world exploring the origins of some games and how different games are influenced by culture but most games have some link to mathematics!
May 1, 2025
An interesting look at around 80 board games from a mathematician’s perspective. Whilst the summary of the games and the history of them are worth a read he gets a little too bogged down in the mathematical nuances to be of interest to me, personally.
November 27, 2024
Lekker doorgerommeld en nu zin in SPELLETJES! Hij schrijft fijn, precies de leesbaarheid en nerderigheid waar ik van hou!
January 31, 2024
Slay, super interesting x
January 1, 2024
A world tour of the world's board (and other) games. All the usual ones are here, plus others that I guarantee will be new to everyone. The games of Africa remain under-known.
"Unlocking the secrets" is an overblown description of how maths comes into the story. There's a focus on game theory and decision theory, as one would expect, with a lot of consideration of symmetry (du Sautoy's own research area) and some autobiographical details too. There's too little maths in many ways, but perhaps too much for a non-mathematician.
The most interesting application comes from silence: two people are asked the same question three times, but it is answerable only on the third asking (the first two having provided information by the fact that neither could answer previously). Very clever.
Two entirely imaginary games also put in an appearence: Azad from , and the (unnamed) game from . Both are conceived as world-spanning games that model an entire culture's activities and concerns – but unfortunately aren't described in enough detail in their source books to admit much analysis. It's fascinating to think what such an analysis might look like, though.
There is as usual a focus on whether a game has been "solved", as in whether an optimal strategy is known to exist. Many do, of course, and for others such a Go there are "solutions" using machine learning so that a machine can win – but can't explain how, which is very unsatisfactory. du Sautoy is clearly exicited by the applications of machine learing to games and other mathematical applications: an excitement I, as a computer scientist, don't really share.
Having said that, this is an interesting complement to other science-driven games books such as , with more depth to the undelying maths.
"Unlocking the secrets" is an overblown description of how maths comes into the story. There's a focus on game theory and decision theory, as one would expect, with a lot of consideration of symmetry (du Sautoy's own research area) and some autobiographical details too. There's too little maths in many ways, but perhaps too much for a non-mathematician.
The most interesting application comes from silence: two people are asked the same question three times, but it is answerable only on the third asking (the first two having provided information by the fact that neither could answer previously). Very clever.
Two entirely imaginary games also put in an appearence: Azad from , and the (unnamed) game from . Both are conceived as world-spanning games that model an entire culture's activities and concerns – but unfortunately aren't described in enough detail in their source books to admit much analysis. It's fascinating to think what such an analysis might look like, though.
There is as usual a focus on whether a game has been "solved", as in whether an optimal strategy is known to exist. Many do, of course, and for others such a Go there are "solutions" using machine learning so that a machine can win – but can't explain how, which is very unsatisfactory. du Sautoy is clearly exicited by the applications of machine learing to games and other mathematical applications: an excitement I, as a computer scientist, don't really share.
Having said that, this is an interesting complement to other science-driven games books such as , with more depth to the undelying maths.
July 17, 2024
There seems to be a tradition of well-respected Oxford professors writing a late-career book on a hobby of theirs, and honestly: maybe they shouldn't. But that's kind of harsh, since I did enjoy this book and learn a lot about the mathematics behind games from it. It's just -- a really imperfect book.
Okay, so first, the author absolutely should not have been seduced into this Eighty Games malarkey. It means that games that are very different from each other are grouped together and very similar games are far apart. And since du Sautoy wanted readers to be able to jump from section to section, the entries for those similar games are repetitive. It would have worked so much better to simply group games by general type.
It also could have worked better to go for a strictly chronological approach. Right now, very ancient games are discussed right next to modern ones, and it means the reader doesn't get much sense of the development of games. (There is a sort of attempt at chronology in some places, but it's really hampered by du Sautoy's insistence on clinging to the geography thing.)
I appreciated du Sautoy's attempts at inclusivity, at finding the games of indigenous peoples. He does that in Australasia and in South America, and in both cases it's really fascinating. (One benefit the geography focus has is you do get a sense of what each area of the world most values in its games.) And then he gets to North America and discusses -- Monopoly and Ticket to Ride. We have an awful lot of indigenous peoples, Marcus. They are still right here. And they definitely played games before the Europeans got here. Did you forget to ask them?
Basically: this book needs to be differently organized (and possibly entitled The Mathematics of Games) and it needed someone to ask du Sautoy some hard questions about what he was leaving out. If it had had those things, it would potentially be a five star book. It ... is not. (Also, keep in mind that because of the discussions of mathematics behind games, you will not want to read this as a bedtime book. Du Sautoy is not making those discussions easy on the reader, let's just say, and he expects you to keep up.)
Okay, so first, the author absolutely should not have been seduced into this Eighty Games malarkey. It means that games that are very different from each other are grouped together and very similar games are far apart. And since du Sautoy wanted readers to be able to jump from section to section, the entries for those similar games are repetitive. It would have worked so much better to simply group games by general type.
It also could have worked better to go for a strictly chronological approach. Right now, very ancient games are discussed right next to modern ones, and it means the reader doesn't get much sense of the development of games. (There is a sort of attempt at chronology in some places, but it's really hampered by du Sautoy's insistence on clinging to the geography thing.)
I appreciated du Sautoy's attempts at inclusivity, at finding the games of indigenous peoples. He does that in Australasia and in South America, and in both cases it's really fascinating. (One benefit the geography focus has is you do get a sense of what each area of the world most values in its games.) And then he gets to North America and discusses -- Monopoly and Ticket to Ride. We have an awful lot of indigenous peoples, Marcus. They are still right here. And they definitely played games before the Europeans got here. Did you forget to ask them?
Basically: this book needs to be differently organized (and possibly entitled The Mathematics of Games) and it needed someone to ask du Sautoy some hard questions about what he was leaving out. If it had had those things, it would potentially be a five star book. It ... is not. (Also, keep in mind that because of the discussions of mathematics behind games, you will not want to read this as a bedtime book. Du Sautoy is not making those discussions easy on the reader, let's just say, and he expects you to keep up.)
July 11, 2024
An interesting look at landmark games from around the world, exploring their history, significance, and of course, some of the underlying mathematics.
This book is split into chapters representing geographic regions. In each, du Sautoy introduces us to some of the games that arose from the area and looks at what makes them successful, slanted towards any mathematics in the game.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the book. Du Sautoy's writing is enjoyable - casual, with good flow, and definitely accessible to the modern reader - and the information he provided was interesting. It did help that I am both a game nerd and a maths nerd! However, I do feel like the book could have benefited from more thorough editing. Whilst the general text was easy to read, the mathematical explanations were rough and hard to get your head around. Furthermore, many points were repeated over and over without adding anything new. Take, for example, the probability distribution you see when rolling two 6-sided dice; this was repeated multiple times, frequently accompanied by the same alternate ways of replicating it and the same implications of thinking all outcomes have an equal probability. In addition, there were multiple basic copyediting errors (a word accidently printed twice; two pronouns erroneously in sequence). There was a lot of filler text trying to lead us from one game or chapter to the next, which got slightly annoying, and yet the chapters still managed to lack proper cohesion in places. I also didn't like the chapters representing oceans, meant to serve as a bridge between land regions; they were used to explore some other aspect of game playing, such as the psychology behind why we play games and the rise of computer games, but to me were more of "here is another point that I want to make that doesn't have any obvious place to be put". All in all, the book did slightly feel like a collection of individual commentaries about 50 or so games, fleshed out with a few extra entries, which had tried to be assembled into a cohesive and structured book without someone reading it properly from start to finish. But that being said, I did like it a lot, and would certainly recommend it to any lovers of games, maths, or both.
This book is split into chapters representing geographic regions. In each, du Sautoy introduces us to some of the games that arose from the area and looks at what makes them successful, slanted towards any mathematics in the game.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the book. Du Sautoy's writing is enjoyable - casual, with good flow, and definitely accessible to the modern reader - and the information he provided was interesting. It did help that I am both a game nerd and a maths nerd! However, I do feel like the book could have benefited from more thorough editing. Whilst the general text was easy to read, the mathematical explanations were rough and hard to get your head around. Furthermore, many points were repeated over and over without adding anything new. Take, for example, the probability distribution you see when rolling two 6-sided dice; this was repeated multiple times, frequently accompanied by the same alternate ways of replicating it and the same implications of thinking all outcomes have an equal probability. In addition, there were multiple basic copyediting errors (a word accidently printed twice; two pronouns erroneously in sequence). There was a lot of filler text trying to lead us from one game or chapter to the next, which got slightly annoying, and yet the chapters still managed to lack proper cohesion in places. I also didn't like the chapters representing oceans, meant to serve as a bridge between land regions; they were used to explore some other aspect of game playing, such as the psychology behind why we play games and the rise of computer games, but to me were more of "here is another point that I want to make that doesn't have any obvious place to be put". All in all, the book did slightly feel like a collection of individual commentaries about 50 or so games, fleshed out with a few extra entries, which had tried to be assembled into a cohesive and structured book without someone reading it properly from start to finish. But that being said, I did like it a lot, and would certainly recommend it to any lovers of games, maths, or both.
February 28, 2025
A number of great games are mentioned, some I had never heard of. Also occassionally there are some nice insights into other cultures.
The rules of most games are not explained in any detail, nor are they given any special mathematical analysis. See them as vignettes to pique your interest, not part of an encylopedia of games. Sometimes the author should have remembered that he did not explain the rules in detail, and either do it or not write like the reader is familiar with the rules anyway.
I thought the discussion could be sloppy at times. The discussion of the doubling cube in backgammon gives the classic treatment in terms of Brownian motion (though without citing the authors) but misleadingly ignores the differences to real backgammon. When Alphago is discussed the famous move 37 is rather sloppily attributed to one line of code. I imagine that is intended as poetic metaphor but when writing for a general audience it can only mislead. I am also rather dubious about some of the historical facts mentioned.
I do not think the book is good at all as math popularization, and what math it explains is often rather tenously related to the game. (That the famous rice story is used to explain exponential growth in the chapter on chess is a good illustration of how little the math is really related to the games.) It is a book about games, only to a very small degree about the application of math to games.
Ultimately I enjoyed the book quite a bit, despite its flaws, but it did not add enough to what could be gained by randomly browsing wikipedia pages on game topics to earn more than 2 stars.
The rules of most games are not explained in any detail, nor are they given any special mathematical analysis. See them as vignettes to pique your interest, not part of an encylopedia of games. Sometimes the author should have remembered that he did not explain the rules in detail, and either do it or not write like the reader is familiar with the rules anyway.
I thought the discussion could be sloppy at times. The discussion of the doubling cube in backgammon gives the classic treatment in terms of Brownian motion (though without citing the authors) but misleadingly ignores the differences to real backgammon. When Alphago is discussed the famous move 37 is rather sloppily attributed to one line of code. I imagine that is intended as poetic metaphor but when writing for a general audience it can only mislead. I am also rather dubious about some of the historical facts mentioned.
I do not think the book is good at all as math popularization, and what math it explains is often rather tenously related to the game. (That the famous rice story is used to explain exponential growth in the chapter on chess is a good illustration of how little the math is really related to the games.) It is a book about games, only to a very small degree about the application of math to games.
Ultimately I enjoyed the book quite a bit, despite its flaws, but it did not add enough to what could be gained by randomly browsing wikipedia pages on game topics to earn more than 2 stars.
April 27, 2024
This was probably the most apt present to be bought by my father, a lover of maths, for me, a lover of reading and boardgames. A book about the maths of games which takes the form of a trip around the world giving the history, and of course mathematics, of famous (and less famous but still fascinating) boardgames from different cultures and points in history.
Overall a great book, really fascinating history and would work well as a book to dip in and out of (it even has a game element to it where the order you read each of the 80 games is decided by a roll of the dice!) but I appreciated the development of reading them in order.
Occasionally I felt the maths went over my head, and I think I would benefit from having someone explain things to me and answer my confused questions (of which I had many) because some parts of the maths, despite me reading the same paragraph multiple times, just didn't really sink in to my thick skull. I have always had a respect for maths and appreciated it, but that doesn't mean I find it easy. The fact my dad was a maths teacher actually put me off the subject rather than encouraging me, though I am sure he taught me many things which are so ingrained in my brain that I don't even realise it was him who taught me.
Anyway, I digress, overall this is a great book and any boardgame fan with an interest in the maths and history behind their favourite games, would definitely appreciate a copy of this book. It also looks very pretty in the edition I was gifted so even if they don't read it it would make a good bookshelf decoration!
Overall a great book, really fascinating history and would work well as a book to dip in and out of (it even has a game element to it where the order you read each of the 80 games is decided by a roll of the dice!) but I appreciated the development of reading them in order.
Occasionally I felt the maths went over my head, and I think I would benefit from having someone explain things to me and answer my confused questions (of which I had many) because some parts of the maths, despite me reading the same paragraph multiple times, just didn't really sink in to my thick skull. I have always had a respect for maths and appreciated it, but that doesn't mean I find it easy. The fact my dad was a maths teacher actually put me off the subject rather than encouraging me, though I am sure he taught me many things which are so ingrained in my brain that I don't even realise it was him who taught me.
Anyway, I digress, overall this is a great book and any boardgame fan with an interest in the maths and history behind their favourite games, would definitely appreciate a copy of this book. It also looks very pretty in the edition I was gifted so even if they don't read it it would make a good bookshelf decoration!
January 23, 2024
All I can say about the book is that Marcus du Sautoy is an amazing author and I'm surely going to read more of his books as fast as I can.
The book consists of Marcus going through 80 different games and analyzing them in different contexts, mainly in the context of culture, history, his personal experience, and math.
At first, I was a bit worried that it would be hard to follow as it is a mathematically themed book, but Marcus proved me wrong quite fast. The chapters were quite separate from each other thanks to which even if I didn't understand one concept I could still proceed to the next chapter and decide to come back to the earlier chapter later on. It also didn't rely on math as much as I expected it to. Instead, it also gave a lot of perspective to the culture and context in which a certain game was created. I found that to be a pleasant surprise as I managed to learn so much more about different cultures while at the same time examining mathematics
Surely my favorite part (though small) of the book was when Marcus explained movie scenes that included a game. Being able to understand what went on in the game Liar's Dice between Devy Jones, Will Turner, and Bootstrap Bill, made me appreciate the movie even more. The same goes for Crazy Rich Asians and Mah Jong<333.
I'm sure I will return to this book one more time at some point in my life and see how my view on games and math will have changed by then.
The book consists of Marcus going through 80 different games and analyzing them in different contexts, mainly in the context of culture, history, his personal experience, and math.
At first, I was a bit worried that it would be hard to follow as it is a mathematically themed book, but Marcus proved me wrong quite fast. The chapters were quite separate from each other thanks to which even if I didn't understand one concept I could still proceed to the next chapter and decide to come back to the earlier chapter later on. It also didn't rely on math as much as I expected it to. Instead, it also gave a lot of perspective to the culture and context in which a certain game was created. I found that to be a pleasant surprise as I managed to learn so much more about different cultures while at the same time examining mathematics
Surely my favorite part (though small) of the book was when Marcus explained movie scenes that included a game. Being able to understand what went on in the game Liar's Dice between Devy Jones, Will Turner, and Bootstrap Bill, made me appreciate the movie even more. The same goes for Crazy Rich Asians and Mah Jong<333.
I'm sure I will return to this book one more time at some point in my life and see how my view on games and math will have changed by then.
January 10, 2024
An enjoyable and easy to read survey of the maths of 80 games from around the world. Distinguishing games from sports (requiring some level of physical aptitude) and puzzles (solitary activities), du Sautoy describes a wide range of board games, card games and pencil-and-paper games, with some discussion of the maths of each. Sometimes this is a mathematical description of the working of the game (such as Dobble) and sometimes a pointer to using maths to give the best chance of winning.
With brief discussions of the historical and cultural significance of some of the games, and psychological and sociological aspects too, this is considerable more than simply a list of 80 games, and he suggests too that the book can be approached as a game by using a die to choose the order in which to read the book.
It was particularly pleasing to see included:
- Cluedo, and confirmation of my deduction that eliminating rooms is more valuable than people or weapons
- Monopoly described as quite tedious and not worth the popularity it seems to have
- Mornington Crescent (and other non-games) which in fact has some conventions (if not rules) of its own.
With brief discussions of the historical and cultural significance of some of the games, and psychological and sociological aspects too, this is considerable more than simply a list of 80 games, and he suggests too that the book can be approached as a game by using a die to choose the order in which to read the book.
It was particularly pleasing to see included:
- Cluedo, and confirmation of my deduction that eliminating rooms is more valuable than people or weapons
- Monopoly described as quite tedious and not worth the popularity it seems to have
- Mornington Crescent (and other non-games) which in fact has some conventions (if not rules) of its own.
February 1, 2025
Když jsem v knihkupectví v Anglii tuhle knížku bral do ruky, tak jsem si řekl: "Když tam nebude o go, tak to nekupuju." Doteď nechápu, jak jsem mohl mít takové pochyby, když je autor matematik.
Tahle knížka mi připadala jako stvořená pro mé autistické já -- historie a současnost (ne)her ze všech koutů světa inspirovaná Cestou kolem světa za 80 dní občas prošperkovaná anekdotou nebo matematickou analýzou na optimální strategii či jak a proč nějaká hra funguje. Upřímně řečeno jsem té matematiky očekával trochu víc, zpětně ale přemýšlím, že to možná bylo akorát.
Autor to ještě posunul na vyšší úroveň a z celé knihy udělal hru -- rozdělení na 80 kapitol umožňuje čtenáři pomocí kostky číst na přeskáčku. Každý tak může číst "jinou knížku", vzhledem k možnému počtu kombinací. Tím pádem se ale občas stává, že některé koncepty/spojitosti musí autor zopakovat, aby každá kapitola mohla stát víceméně samostatně -- rozhodně to ale není přítomné v každé kapitole.
Jde ale vidět, že je autor vášnivým hráčem a skutečně je to až nakažlivé. Mám aktuálně chuť si vyzkoušet spoustu (nových) her, až se bojím, že mě nějakou dobu v práci neuvidí...
Tahle knížka mi připadala jako stvořená pro mé autistické já -- historie a současnost (ne)her ze všech koutů světa inspirovaná Cestou kolem světa za 80 dní občas prošperkovaná anekdotou nebo matematickou analýzou na optimální strategii či jak a proč nějaká hra funguje. Upřímně řečeno jsem té matematiky očekával trochu víc, zpětně ale přemýšlím, že to možná bylo akorát.
Autor to ještě posunul na vyšší úroveň a z celé knihy udělal hru -- rozdělení na 80 kapitol umožňuje čtenáři pomocí kostky číst na přeskáčku. Každý tak může číst "jinou knížku", vzhledem k možnému počtu kombinací. Tím pádem se ale občas stává, že některé koncepty/spojitosti musí autor zopakovat, aby každá kapitola mohla stát víceméně samostatně -- rozhodně to ale není přítomné v každé kapitole.
Jde ale vidět, že je autor vášnivým hráčem a skutečně je to až nakažlivé. Mám aktuálně chuť si vyzkoušet spoustu (nových) her, až se bojím, že mě nějakou dobu v práci neuvidí...
July 1, 2025
There were some interesting bits about the history of some games, some bits of nostalgia about games I enjoyed as a child and some interesting bits of Maths. The problem was that these good bits made up about half of the book.
The main problem seemed to be that the book didn't know what it was supposed to be - was it a book about games, with a bit of Maths thrown in, or was it a Maths book that used games to illustrate some of the points? A lot of the Maths detail was pretty hardcore unless you had a Maths degree too.
I followed the author's suggestion about reading the book like a game - rolling a die to decide which chapter to read next. Bad idea. Quite a few of the chapters made reference to games that featured earlier in the book, which I hadn't read about yet, and that was just annoying. Plus, I didn't get that sense of progress or how nearly over it was when I started to get a bit bored.
In summary then, I don't think the book was finished - it needed more editing and some rewrites. I wanted to love it and had high expectations, but unfortunately they were only met in places.
The main problem seemed to be that the book didn't know what it was supposed to be - was it a book about games, with a bit of Maths thrown in, or was it a Maths book that used games to illustrate some of the points? A lot of the Maths detail was pretty hardcore unless you had a Maths degree too.
I followed the author's suggestion about reading the book like a game - rolling a die to decide which chapter to read next. Bad idea. Quite a few of the chapters made reference to games that featured earlier in the book, which I hadn't read about yet, and that was just annoying. Plus, I didn't get that sense of progress or how nearly over it was when I started to get a bit bored.
In summary then, I don't think the book was finished - it needed more editing and some rewrites. I wanted to love it and had high expectations, but unfortunately they were only met in places.
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