Monday, January 28, 2019

A little bookish trivia....


Did you know that the game of Clue was inspired by the British murder mysteries from the Golden Age of Detective Fiction? 

It seems that Anthony Pratt, Clue's designer, was an avid reader and drew inspiration for his classic game from the mysteries he loved.

Cool, huh?





So, where did I learn this fascinating bit of bookish trivia?



It's All A Game: The History of Board Games From Monopoly to Settlers of Catan by Tristan Donovan is a fascinating read. Each chapter focuses on a different game from Chess to Scrabble, Twister to Risk, Trivial Pursuit to Pandemic. For example, I never knew that the Risk was inspired by the war games played in Prussia in the 1800s to help Prussian officers strategically prepare for battle, or that stores didn't want to sell Twister when it was first introduced because they weren't sure it was morally proper to play it. "This book is the story of these board games. The games that shaped us, explained us, and molded the world we live in." And I thought it was a lot of fun. It read pretty fast, too. And when I was done, I wanted to pull out our old game of Life and give the wheel a spin.   

Happy Reading.... and game playing!


35 comments:

  1. :) This does sound like a fun read!

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  2. Hi Lark, I did not know that Clue was inspired by the creator's love of British golden age mysteries. It shows us that nonfiction like fiction has endless possibilities about what one can write about that can make for interesting reading.

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    1. I never would have guessed a book about the history of games would have been so fun and interesting...but there you go. :)

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  3. I love Clue, so I loved learning that bit of trivia about it -thanks! Very cool ;)

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  4. Fun! I wonder what books Pratt read.

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    1. Right? I wish they would have listed his favorites.

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  5. I totally get that Clue was inspired by Golden Age crime novels! I loved that game AND the novels too!

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  6. How fun! Sounds like a super interesting book.

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  7. Oh this sounds like such a fun read! Clue is one of my favorite board games, so that bit of trivia was really neat to learn. :)

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    1. Clue's a great game. I still like playing it. :)

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  8. I love that about Clue! How fun. I recently discovered the British Library line of Golden Age mystery reprints and I've been getting a few so this is really interesting and good timing seeing this! :)

    I think I'd love It's All A Game.

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    1. If you like playing board games at all it's a really interesting read. (And I only recently discovered the Golden Age mystery reprints, too, but I'm really enjoying them.)

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  9. I did not know that at all about Clue -- also, how cool is this book!

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  10. Over here, we call it Cluedo-not sure why the title is different! It was always my favourite board game!

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    1. That might have been its original name, which they then changed to Clue when they published it in the U.S.

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  11. Oh that is cool! Clue is one of my favorite games.

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  12. Sounds interesting and not to mention a fun read. :D

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    1. It's the best kind of nonfiction: fun and interesting. And I learned something! :D

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  13. Clue! I haven’t played that game since I was a kid. It was one of my favorites.

    Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  14. Didn't know that about Clue, but as a mystery lover I enjoyed playing it. It's All Game sounds like an interesting read. :)

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    1. I really enjoyed it. But then, I like playing board games a lot. :D

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  15. OOh! I know just the person who'd love this!

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  16. That book is going on my to-read list immediately!

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  17. Oh, that sounds like a fun book! I love board games, but don't get a chance to play very often because it's just the two of us at home now, and Mr. Bookwyrm isn't that enamored of them.

    I can certainly believe that Clue was based on Golden Age mysteries; there's a very Christie-esque feel to the game.

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  18. What a fun book! I didn't play a lot of board games but remember one of my best friends loved clue so I loved it when I was over at her house and we played that one. I always have enjoyed murder mysteries :)

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