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Check out the Video Game Book Source for books separated by discipline. Highly recommended!

• Challenges for Game Designers (Shameless Self-Promotion)
• Character Development and Storytelling for Games (Game Development Series), Lee Sheldon, the quintessential book on game writing by a very experienced designer and writer.
• Game Writing: Narrative Skills for Videogames, edited by Bateman
• Theory of Fun for Game Design, Raph Koster, a classic and a yearly read for me.
• Understanding Comics, Scott McCloud, a favorite book among game designers
• Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the seminal book on the zone that all designers want players to reach.
• Patterns for Game Design, Bjork and Holopainen, a dictionary of mechanics
• Game Design, 2nd Edition Bob Bates, an excellent and well written book that’s great for people new to game design. Cheap, too.
• Game Design Workshop, 2nd Ed, Tracy Fullerton

Great Books for Coders

• Coders at Work: Reflections on the Craft of Programming by Peter Seibel
• Masterminds of Programming: Conversations with the Creators of Major Programming Languages (Theory in Practice (O’Reilly)) by Federico Biancuzzi
• Programmers at Work: Interviews with 19 Programmers Who Shaped the Computer Industry
• Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution – 25th Anniversary Edition

Great Games for Parents & Kids to Play Together

Hey, That’s My Fish!
Dragon Parade

Great Games

Santiago

Notre Dame

1960: The Making of a President

4000 AD (Waddingtons Games)
The Creature That Ate Sheboygan (SPI)
Stellar Conquest (Avalon Hill)

Advanced Civilization (by Avalon Hill, I think)

Advanced Squad Leader

Apples to Apples

Arkham Horror

Axis & Allies

Betrayal at the House on the Hill

Blokus

Blue Max

Bohnanza

Brawl

Bridge

Carabande (I forget the English version name of this).

Carcassone

Chess

Chrononauts

Citadels

Descent: Journeys in the Dark

Double Fanucci (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Fanucci).

Dungeons & Dragons

Empires in Arms

Eurorails, Nipponrails, Iron Dragon, etc.

Fluxx

Ghost (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_(game) )

Project GIPF

Hare & Tortoise (aka Hase und Igel).

Junta

King Me, Tsuro

Knizia’s Lord of the Rings

Liar’s Dice (aka Bluff)

Lifeboats

Magic: the Gathering

Memoir ’44 and/or Battlecry and/or Battle Lore

Modern Art

Mother Sheep

Mr. Jack

Munchkin and/or Chez Geek

Nomic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nomic)

OGRE/G.E.V (by Steve Jackson)

Once Upon a Time

Piecepack (www.piecepack.org)

Pit

Poker

Power Grid

Puerto Rico

Republic of Rome (Avalon Hill)

RISK

RISK 2210

Robo Rally

Samurai Swords (aka Shogun)

Sanctuary (Mayfair)
221B Baker Street
Diplomacy (Avalon Hill/WotC)
History of the World (Avalon Hill)

Scotland Yard

Set, and/or Ricochet Robot.

Settlers of Catan

Six Nimmt and/or Diamant

Spades

Spellcaster (http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~gc00/reviews/spellcaster.html)

Stonehenge

Tales of the Arabian Nights (West End)
Star Trek: The Adventure Game (West End)
Voyage of the BSM Pandora (solo – Ares magazine #6)
Sorcerer’s Cave (Ariel) and its bemusing sequel, Mystic Wood (Avalon Hill)
Barbarian Prince (solo – Dwarfstar Games)
Source of the Nile (Avalon Hill)
King Arthur’s Knights (Chaosium)
Runebound (Fantasy Flight Games)

Talisman

The Very Clever Pipe Game (CheapAss Games)

Ticket to Ride
Shadows Over Camelot
Pirate’s Cove
Cleopatra and the Society of Architects
Cosmic Encounter

Tikal

Titan (Avalon Hill)
The Lords of Underearth (Metagaming)
Valley of the Four Winds (Games Workshop)
Borderlands (Eon)Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation (Fantasy Flight Games)

Twilight Imperium

Werewolf

Wits & Wagers

World in flames

X-Machina