Books generally about tabletop games. List order is roughly chronological by subject. For the purposes of this list tabletop game includes the following:
Wargames
Board games
Card games
Pen and paper games
Roleplaying games
Dice games
Fictional games
For computer games see my (nascent) Video Game Histories list.
I tried Mazes and Monsters. Really hot garbage. Demonizes RPGs, and written by someone who is barely familiar with the subject matter. I suppose its included on this list for its historical significance surrounding that suicide in the 1980s, but the book lacks any sort of literary merit or insight into the RPG hobby.
one of my unpopular opinions is that Mazes and Monsters is slightly more interesting and insightful than its reputation suggests. Not a lot, but a little.
I don't think I'll be finishing it but I'll take your word for it. Thing is, I don't reject the premise of an anti-RPG novel, but I think this sort of novel would be more compelling if written by someone who played them. The same way I would rather read an anti-drugs novel written by a former drug addict.
I question the premise that it's an anti-RPG novel, tbh, but your point is sound.
Nice. I am reading Kawabata's "The Master of Go" and was just thinking about other novels where the plot revolves around the characters playing a board/card game. The only other one I know of is Zweig's "Chess Story" but I'm sure there are more.
Fantastic list. I have a bunch sitting in my read/to-read lists (edit: albeit, oriented towards video games). Here are some (first two I've read, others look interesting): Building SimCity: How to Put the World in a Machine by Gingold. Treacherous Play by Carter. The Infinite Playground by De Koven. The Avatar Faculty: Ecstatic Transformations in Religion and Video Games by Snodgrass. Fictional Games: A Philosophy of Worldbuilding and Imaginary Play by Gualeni and Fassone. Some additional stuff: (1) MIT Press has two series on games (perhaps you are already aware of this?): (i) Game Histories: https://mitpress.mit.edu/series/game-histories/ (ii) Playful thinking: https://mitpress.mit.edu/series/playful-thinking/ (2) The Routledge philosophy handbooks has the "Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Games" coming out in 2025.
Thanks for the contributions and kind words! I have added several to the list, and all are new to me. Because it's such a large topic, and perhaps out of some bias on my part, I'm excluding computer games from the scope of this list for now. But I'm really interested in the titles you suggest. Possibly might be worth it to develop at least three "Game" lists: Tabletop, Video, and Philosophy of?
Little Wars by H.G. Wells would fit I think
No similar lists found
Bolano, “The Third Reich”, also fits into the genre of “solo stay at obscure resort”.
!!! Very interesting, I must track down several copies of The Paris Review