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dabmo22's review against another edition
challenging
funny
informative
medium-paced
4.5
An interesting way of navigating through cultures, psychology and philosophy by using games as a tool of mathematics to describe the observations we have of the world we live in.
sheilamp's review against another edition
challenging
informative
medium-paced
4.5
For maths geeks everywhere!
incandescentreads's review against another edition
3.0
Rating : 3 ⭐
This was interesting, but the book didn't feel fully committed to one overall goal. It wanted to be a history of games, a philosophical discussion on the concept of games, and an exploration of the mathematical principles behind famous games all at once. I still enjoyed it even though I wish it had had a tighter direction.
This was interesting, but the book didn't feel fully committed to one overall goal. It wanted to be a history of games, a philosophical discussion on the concept of games, and an exploration of the mathematical principles behind famous games all at once. I still enjoyed it even though I wish it had had a tighter direction.
sve_ja_ni's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
informative
lighthearted
medium-paced
4.0
ijbutcher's review
4.0
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.