Thank you to Aconyte Books for providing me with this book in exchange for my honest opinion. What Board Games Mean to Me is available now.

I love games. This should be obvious, considering how quickly I jumped at the chance to read this book. Most adults can relate to the busyness that takes over our lives. It can be hard to carve out fun time, but some of my favorite “me” time is spent playing board games with family and friends. In fact, there’s a family that my family and I get together and play with on a semi-regular basis. This started when our kids were too young to do more than toddle around, although they’re now old enough to join in on some of the games (have you ever tried to play Spyfall with an eight-year-old? It’s hilarious). I can almost chart the growth of our friendship through the different games we’ve played.

What Board Games Mean to Me focuses on many instances such as these, sharing the sense of community, joy, social navigation, and creativity that can come with pulling out a board game and “wasting” a few hours. Each chapter features a different answer to the question “What do board games mean to me?”. These answers come from board game creators, writers, and other people whose lives are very much wrapped up in a game. As with most books with multiple contributors, I enjoyed some of the stories better than others.

It was interesting to see what role board games play in each person’s life and how they were first sucked in. From the mom who tried to play Ticket to Ride while in the hospital delivering her baby (I would not recommend this), to the incredibly ill child whose priest taught him chess right after scaring him half to death by giving him his last rites, it was clear that there are important memories tied up in playing games.

There were, of course, a few stories that stood out to me. First was “Picture a Scene” by KC Ogbuagu. He is a board game creator and has been instrumental in the inception of the first sub-Saharan board game convention, among other achievements. His enthusiasm for game creation shone through the pages and I had to smile at his descriptions of his first homemade game. My oldest has been working on his own game for over a year now and it started quite similarly to the way it’s described in the book; with slips of paper poorly cut, slowly refined over time (he is hoping to eventually have a finished product that can be made into a trademarked product and sold).

The one with the new mom, desperately trying to snatch a few minutes to play in the hospital made me laugh. I don’t think I’ve ever gone that far to play a game. That is, I put it down when the contractions started in earnest. Then, there was “More than the Game on the Table” by Susan McKinley Ross, the creator of Qwirkle. It was extremely touching and also very relatable.

I found myself wishing that I could set up an email communication for my son with some of these creators. He has a million questions that beg for answers. However, I plan to give him this book, knowing that he will feel encouraged by the number of best-selling creators who started the way he has, with an idea that won’t stop tickling his brain.

If you don’t enjoy board games, this isn’t a book that will make much sense to you. What Board Games Mean to Me is a love letter to a different sort of way to navigate the curveballs the life throws at us. It is a recognition that sometimes a game is more than a game: it’s a tool to break down social barriers, find time to recharge, and even a way to initiate friendships that maybe aren’t easily formed without that common ground. Oh, and of course, the most important thing:

Board games are fun.