Eric Thurm

Avidly Reads Board Games by Eric Thurm was an absolute pleasant surprise, the writing, the manner in which games are covered, spoke to me from start to finish.

The Avidly Reads series seems like it will offer writers a similar opportunity as a few other series currently being published. The chosen topic serves as the focal point but the approach is largely up to the writer, perhaps more personal and memoirish, perhaps more straightforward historical and sociological, but almost always some hybrid of several approaches. I approached this book with a certain skepticism, I mean, really, board games?

From the beginning we learn just how these games can both form community (even within close family members) and serve as a therapeutic tool. Now that we know there will be a deeply personal element to this book, we get the history of games in general largely through the example of a few games in particular. This is a short book, an exhaustive history would have been impossible. This history also parallels Thurms personal history, so we see examples, which many of us can relate to, of how board games are far more than just "play and entertainment."

If you have a history with board games, especially if that history extends beyond the games of childhood into the role playing games (I was mostly D&D, Risk, and a bunch of Avalon-Hill games, but always tried others), you will have many personal memories arise while reading this. Especially if you're of a certain age (old) like me.

I highly recommend this to readers who are or were big board game players, as well as those interested in what games do in and say about society and culture.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via Edelweiss.… (meer)