Tristan DonovanCritiques

Very interesting summary of the videogames history - enjoyed it pretty much!

Donovan's collection of essays about the development of board games is made up of two rather awkwardly intermingled halves. Roughly half the essays are about specific games: what led up to their development, how they achieved success, and then either how people have continued to build upon their cultural familiarity or how our culture's appreciation of them has shifted over time. The other half are about changing cultural values and how they are applied to board games over time, perhaps best typified by, but not limited to, a specific popular title. Though they may not sound very different at first, one set of essays satisfies, and one does not.

The essays driven by a single game are very satisfying because they tell coherent stories. By and large, these are found in the first half of the book - covering chess, backgammon, Monopoly, the Game of Life, Scrabble, and Clue - and while they occasionally divert into tangents, those seem connected to the original topic. The backgammon chapter examines its fall from grace with the celebrity set, who moved their attention to Texas Hold 'Em poker; the Scrabble chapter increasingly becomes about the development and purpose of Scrabble dictionaries. These little offshoots make sense. They are compelling. They clarify rather than confuse.

The second set of essays isn't nearly as attention-grabbing, mostly because they lack that cohesive, unified story. Sometimes they feel like they've each been bolted together from three or four smaller articles that couldn't stand on their own. The Risk chapter is only minimally about Risk, and far more about the use of war board games to strategize real conflict, from Kriegsspiel on up. The Trivial Pursuit chapter contextualizes Trivial Pursuit as just one game in a big social shift in the '80s to create "grown-up" board games. The Twister chapter somewhat clunkily veers from the sexual implications of Twister to the very real sexuality of Monogamy. Only two of these broader-style essays really come through clearly: the one about ancient games at the very beginning, and the one about the rise of German games at the end. For whatever reason, those have a cultural point to make that carries them above the specific games involved; they feel meaningful in a way that, say, an examination of the development of machine learning does not.

To Donovan's credit, there's a recognizable pattern in the essay titles. Almost all of the essays that focus directly on a specific game centralize that title, while others provide a specific game or games only in a subtitle. Still, a casual browser could be excused for making assumptions.

Overall, I recommend the book, especially as a library read. Just don't be surprised if the coherency feels like it starts to dwindle away the longer you go on.

Based on a copy from NetGalley

If you love board games, you'll probably like this book. If you love trivia, you'll probably like this book. In general, you'll probably like this book (and will want to go out and play board games).

The author travels around the world to determine how animals manage in the urban environment. A very interesting book.

Fun book about the history of board games. If you are a gamer, you probably should brush up on the history of your favorite past time. This book covers the origins of Monopoly, Risk, and all those plastic board games you played as a kid (Mouse Trap, Operation). The parts I found interesting were the ancient history of board games going back to the Egyptians. There was a lot about Chess since that is an old and extremely influential game.

Overall, good read and well written. Excellent book for anyone who enjoys games and/or history.

A fun niche history of various popular board games as well as how trends in culture influenced their development (and vice versa). Donovan's writing is smooth and easy reading and there's plenty to enjoy here whether you're super into table top games or if you just have fond memories from childhood. My only problem was some weird copy editing things; the chapter on Clue misuses "gentile" twice in a context where it should have been either "gentle" or "genteel". Other than that small issue, I highly recommend the book if it tickles your fancy at all.

Roll the dice. Do not pass go, do not collect $200. I love playing board games and It's All A Game - A Short History of Board Games by Tristan Donovan was a good read.

All the expected games are there: Chess, Backgammon, Trivial Pursuit, Scrabble, Cluedo, Pictionary and Monopoly and much more. I appreciated reading the history behind the formation of these games and learning about new - to me - ones.

The section on war games was interesting, however I was surprised and secretly excited to hear mention of The Ungame and Scruples.
I enjoyed reading about the evolution of my favourite game Monopoly, however was embarrassed to learn it was created in the USA first. I played the British version and ignorantly believed the American game board was the 'inferior' version. Whoops!

"By 2016 [Monopoly] had sold more than 250 million copies worldwide. It is, by far, the bestselling branded board game ever created and no other game, except maybe chess, has so imprinted itself on the world's collective consciousness." Page 95

I also enjoyed learning about the formation of Simon & Schuster on page 155:
Richard Simon was at his aunt's house for dinner in 1924 and she asked if there was a collection of cross words she could buy for her daughter.
"Together with his friend Lincoln Schuster, Simon founded a publishing company called Simon & Schuster" to publish a collection of cross word puzzles. The book became a sensation and "Simon & Schuster was on its way to becoming one of the biggest book publishers in the United States."

I read It's All A Game during Non Fiction November (hosted by A Book Olive) and it left me wanting to play boardgames again. Unfortunately I don't have any willing participants close by so now I'm playing Backgammon on Board Game Arena. My profile name is Carpe_Librum (naturally) if anyone wants to play.

Roll the dice.

* Copy courtesy of Allen & Unwin *

This is a wonderful slim volume full of stories of when the wild clashes with the urban - and the results thereof. There are stories of foreign invaders: the Japanese cockroach, Giant African Land Snails, tegus, boas, and pythons. There are stories of humans encroaching on the natural habitats of creatures like elk, bears, mountain lions, leopards, and more. Then there are the stories of more unusual things still: the sheer unknowns.

How have we never studied what anthropods exist in our homes? How have we never considered the wilderness below our very feet? It boggles the mind.

This book encompasses the philosophy that I was only recently exposed to thanks to the wonderful writing of [a: Lyanda Lynn Haupt|16810|Lyanda Lynn Haupt|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1248017975p2/16810.jpg]. It isn't so much our way of life that needs to change - things such as cities will always exist - but rather our perspective itself that requires an overhaul. Programs like the Lights Out (a brilliant program I myself am part of) are helping us understand how we can change our architecture to lessen bird collisions during migratory seasons. We can change our cities to encourage wildlife diversity, to foster more green spaces that are good for both ourselves and the animals we share our lives with. There is no separation between city and wilderness, ultimately. It's all wilderness, just some has been manufactured by us and it's important we learn how to improve it for the benefit of the creatures around us as well as ourselves.

This book is subtitled “The History of Board Games from Monopoly to Settlers of Catan,” however, it starts its story well before that, with games found in ancient tombs and with chess. I think “history” is a bit of a misnomer. While there is lots of history here, each chapter of the book has a strong theme and can stand alone. The chapters often go well beyond the straightforward subject of board games to encompass subjects such as the grown in computer intelligence—first to take on and beat the world’s best chess players—then to win at the more complex game of Go. The chapter on Trivial Pursuit highlights the rise in games that appeal to adults. The chapter that starts out talking about the 1960s sensation, Twister, expands to cover several games that have sexual aspects. The chapter on Scrabble addresses the international differences in how Scrabble is played and how it is now a game of memorization rather than vocabulary.

The author traces the development of chess from its beginnings, through regional and cultural variations in how pieces looked and moved, to its modern form played all over the world. Later we see how more modern games, such as The Game of Life and Clue, have also evolved, with updates and variants intended to help them appeal to new generations of players. As the book shows, this strategy doesn’t always work, and some of the failures are amusing.

The book also focuses on the creators and other personalities in the board games industry, such as the memorable Marvin Glass, who led the trend toward more action-oriented 3-dimensional games such as Mouse Trap. Sadly, some of the best game creators never received the credit or financial success they were due, as their ideas were popularized by others, who took the credit, or who signed away their ideas for a pittance rather than the millions that could have been theirs.

At well under 300 pages, this book can hardly be comprehensive. No doubt some of your favorites will be left out. But what is here is engrossing, entertaining, and highly educational. The author writes extremely well, and his serious treatment of the subject is a complete winner. Happily, a new generation seems to have re-discovered board games and embraced new ones, such as Settlers of Catan or Pandemic, and the face-to-face interaction they provide with family and friends. It seems that despite computers and the internet, board games more popular than ever.

Tristan Donovan seems to have two ambitions for this book. First, he wants to show that the history of board games is as long, as interesting and as quirky as human history itself. Board games, he shows, have been an important part of just about every human society. Second, he wants to develop a more general explanation for why board games have played such an important role in people's lives. He is much more successful at the first ambition, though he certainly raises many thought-provoking points about how games have enlarged and enriched human experience. Bottom line: this is a great place to start for someone who enjoys tabletop gaming and is interested to learn more about it.

We like to play board games at my house so I was eager to read It’s All a Game to learn more about the creation of some of our favorite games. For the most part, the book was interesting and entertaining, and I learned a lot of fascinating facts that I have been imparting to my family and friends. My one caveat is that occasionally Donovan spends way too much time on one particular subject such as the Russian domination of chess for decades; I found that out of place in a book on the history of various games. I just skimmed those sections and moved on.

The histories of games such as Clue, The Game of Life, Monopoly, Trivial Pursuit, and Scrabble are much more complicated and creative than one might think. Truly for me, it was actually a subject I had never thought about at all. Each game follows a path that seems to be a combination of ingenuity, luck, and timing, and each individual story is quite intriguing and speaks to what society valued at the time of the creation of that particular game. I was also amazed to learn that Monopoly was used to funnel escape kits to the Allied prisoners during World War 2. The cardboard base of the game had small compartments cut into the board to stash a small compass, two files and a silk map and then the playing area was glued back on. Money in the currency the prisoners would need was hidden among the Monopoly money. How cool is that?!

I really enjoyed the section on German games, particularly The Settlers of Catan and Ticket to Ride, because we play those a fair amount. I wish the author had included a few other popular games such as Blokus and Sequence to round out the book, but overall he covered a good list of games.

I recommend this book for those who enjoy playing board games; I learned so many cool details that add another dimension to my enjoyment of playing those games. Thanks to Thomas Dunne Books and NetGalley for the chance to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Excellent and interesting narrative of various wildlife in major cities.

After a somewhat slow start with a technical discussion of making sodas, the narrative picks up momentum and really has some pop to it. Fascinating analysis of how Coca-Cola was the frontrunner in the soda business but continually had to battle rivals ( particularly Pepsi) for dominance in the soft drink market. It has also has a good international flavor to it as they tried to gain a foothold in various foreign countries.

Pop goes the culture

Fizz: How Soda Shook Up the World by Tristan Donovan (Chicago Review Press, $17.95).

What started as medicine for the ancients didn’t become almost everyone’s go-to beverage at hamburger joints overnight, and Tristan Donovan—who’s previously written a history of video games—has written an interesting social and cultural history of our love affair with carbonated beverages. By the time the 19th century finally brought us Coca-Cola (or “Co-cola,” if you’re from the South), there had already been a lot of ground covered.

And Coke—now under siege for its sugar content, but through most of the 20th century perceived as an innocent treat—once had to fight rumors of the presence of cocaine, not to mention suggestions that it would lead to bad behavior.

We’ve had a love-hate relationship with soft drinks, and Donovan covers the Coke-Pepsi wars, the cancer scares, and the rise of the health-consciousness that is dealing a blow to soda sales and forcing companies to move into other beverage sectors. But it’s less concerned with the soda industry than with the cultural history of those of us who drink it, which makes this an entertaining and enlightening book.

(Published on Lit/Rant on 2/4/2014: http://litrant.tumblr.com/post/75581075944/pop-goes-the-culture-fizz-how-soda-sh...

Ever since Jean Jacob Schweppe started charging a nominal fee for his sparkling mineral water in the 1780s, the paying public has never been able to get enough soda. Mix together a flavoring agent and some carbonated water and you have yourself a tasty (and potentially profitable) treat. In the beginning, sodas were marketed as cure-alls for whatever ailed you. In Fizz, Tristan Donovan compiles a well-written history of the creation, marketing, and consumption of sodas. Starting with Joseph Priestley’s experiments with adding carbon dioxide to water and ending with the complex science behind Red Bull, we get the full range of soda and soda-esque beverages throughout history. There are the classic Pemberton’s Coca-Cola versus Thomson’s Moxie versus Bradham’s Pepsi wars, and the ascension of sodas during both Prohibition and the World Wars, but Donovan goes deeper to look at soda’s impact on global trade, domestic food laws, and the social landscape. There’s also a fair amount on the almost-constant corporate espionage between Coke and Pepsi. The bibliography is decent and thorough, the writing fluid, and the story mildly compelling. A good and interesting read.½