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Mod
There are two common theories about the origin of Rummy, attributing its origins in either Mexico or China in the nineteenth century. The first is that it originated in Mexico around the 1890s in a game described as Conquian in R.F. Foster's book Foster's Complete Hoyle, which was played with a 40 card Spanish deck and had melding mechanics. The second is that Rummy originated in Asia, and that Rummy was the result of a Mahjongg variant named Kun P'ai that was Westernized as Khanhoo by W.H. Wilkinson in 1891.
Games scholar David Parlett combines these two theories, and proposes that the Mexican game of Conquian is ancestral to all rummy games, and that Conquian is the equivalent of the Chinese game Khanhoo. The rummy principle of drawing and discarding with a view to melding appears in Chinese card games at least in the early 19th century, and perhaps as early as the 18th century.
Rummy variations like Gin and Canasta became popular in the twentieth century. Rummy games are popular in India, and it is likely that Indian rummy is an extension of gin rummy and 500 rum, which originated from the United States.
Complete one of the following tasks:
♠️ Read a book set in Mexico or China.
♥️ Read a book with double letters in the title {example: the Ms in Rummy}.
♣️ Read a book with dual plot lines.
♦️ Read a book with a 1, 8, 9, or 0 in the page count.
Mod
Go Fish, or sometimes just call Fish, is a card game usually played by two to six players in about 5 to 15 minutes. The rules are simple and any standard deck of cards will do.
Go Fish rules aren’t particularly complex. If there are three or more players, each player is dealt five cards. If there are only two players, deal 7 cards to each. The remaining cards are placed in a pile between all the players.
Starting with the player to the left of the dealer, each player takes a turn asking another player if they have a specific card rank (e.g. “Phoebe, do you have any nines?� or “Joe, do you have any Queens?�). If asked for a rank he has in his hand, a player must hand over all of the cards of that rank. The asker then gets to take another turn. If a player has no cards of the requested rank, he responds, “Go fish.� The asker then draws a card from the pile. If he happens to draw the card he was requesting, the asker shows the card to the group as proof and takes another turn.
Players try to form sets of four-of-a-kind. When they do, the four cards are immediately placed on the table face up. Play continues until all books have been made. Winner is the player who makes the most books.
Complete one of the following tasks:
♠️ Read a book with a pair of MCs.
♥️ Read a book with a 4 in the publication date.
♣️ Read a book where the MC's first initial is found in GO FISH.
♦️ Read a book that is quick {less than 200 pages}.
Mod
The game of Hearts probably originated with Reversis, which became popular around 1750 in Spain. In this game, a penalty point was awarded for each trick won, plus additional points for taking J� or Q� in tricks.
Hearts itself emerged in the United States during the 1880s, The Standard Hoyle of 1887 reporting that it had only been played there for "the last five years" and was "probably of German origin." It described Hearts as "a most pleasant game, highly provocative of laughter." It was a no-trump, trick-taking game for four players using a full pack of cards, the aim being to avoid taking any hearts in tricks. The basic format has changed little since.
In 1909, the Q� was added as the highest penalty card in a variant called either Discard Hearts, after the new feature of passing unwanted cards to other players after the deal, or Black Lady, after the nickname for the Q�. This new variant has since become the standard game of the Hearts group in America where it is often, somewhat confusingly, also called "Hearts."
The game has increased in popularity through Internet gaming sites.
Complete one of the following tasks:
♠️ Read a book with a heart on the cover.
♥️ Read a book with a MPG of Romance.
♣️ Read a book where the internet is mentioned.
♦️ Read a book with a Queen in it.
Mod
FreeCell is a solitaire card game played using the standard 52-card deck. It is fundamentally different from most solitaire games in that very few deals are unsolvable, and all cards are dealt face-up from the very beginning of the game.
One of the oldest ancestors of FreeCell is Eight Off. In the June 1968 edition of Scientific American, Martin Gardner described in his "Mathematical Games" column a game by C. L. Baker that is similar to FreeCell, except that cards on the tableau are built by suit rather than by alternate colors. Gardner wrote, "The game was taught to Baker by his father, who in turn learned it from an Englishman during the 1920s." This variant is now called Baker's Game.
Microsoft has included a FreeCell computer game with every release of the Windows operating system since 1995, greatly contributing to the game's popularity among users of personal computers, even leading to the creation of several websites devoted to FreeCell.
Complete one of the following tasks:
♠️ Read a book with MPG of Historical Fiction.
♥️ Read a book with at least 3 Es in the title.
♣️ Read a book where the MC uses a computer.
♦️ Read a book with the word FREE found in the text {state passage and location}.
Mod
In Kings in the Corner, players try to get rid of all of their cards using a solitaire-like formation. In this game using a 52 card deck, Kings are high and Aces are low. There’s quite a bit of strategy involved!
The dealer deals 10 cards to each player. Next, a “balance� of cards is laid out on the table using cards from the remaining deck. Here’s how the balance is set up: the deck of cards is set face down in the middle for a stockpile, and one card each is laid face up above, below, to the right, and to the left of the stock in a kind of cross formation.
When the balance is set up, the non-dealer starts play by drawing a card from the stock and checking to see where it might be played on the board. Cards may be played by laying a card of lower value and opposite suit over a card of higher value (a black 10 on a red Jack, a red five on a black six, etc.).
If a player has a King that can be played, that player can lay the King faceup in one of the corners around the balance. Players can then play off of the King like usual, except they must add cards in descending order. That means if you have a red King in the corner, the next play would have to be a black Queen, and so on.
If there is a possibility to play an entire pile of cards atop another pile, a player can make that move, then start a new pile in the open space created with a card of any number or suit. So for example, say one of the original balance cards was a red Jack. If a black Queen opens up in a corner (like in the previous example), a player can take that whole stack of cards and move it on top of the King in the corner. The player can then start a new pile with a card of their choosing in the open slot.
The first player to get rid of all their cards wins the round. At the end of each round, players score 10 points for each King left in their hand, and one point for each other card left. The game is played until one player scores 25 points, and the player with the lower score wins the game.
Complete one of the following tasks:
♠️ Read a book with a 2 and a 5 in the publication date.
♥️ Read a book with something in the "corner" of the book cover.
♣️ Read a book with a royal character.
♦️ Read a book with 2 - 4 major characters.
Mod
Uno was originally developed in 1971 by Merle Robbins in Reading, Ohio, a suburb of Cincinnati. When his family and friends began to play more and more, he spent $8,000 to have 5,000 copies of the game made. He sold it from his barbershop at first, and local businesses began to sell it as well. Robbins later sold the rights to Uno to a group of friends headed by Robert Tezak, a funeral parlor owner in Joliet, Illinois, for $50,000 plus royalties of 10 cents per game. Tezak formed International Games, Inc., to market Uno, with offices behind his funeral parlor. The games were produced by Lewis Saltzman of Saltzman Printers in Maywood, Illinois. In 1992, International Games became part of the Mattel family of companies.
The aim of the game is to be the first player to score 500 points, achieved (usually over several rounds of play) by being the first to play all of one's own cards and scoring points for the cards still held by the other players.
The 2018 edition of the game consists of 112 cards: 25 in each of four color suits (red, yellow, green, blue), each suit consisting of one zero, two each of 1 through 9, and two each of the action cards "Skip," "Draw Two," and "Reverse." The deck also contains four "Wild" cards, four "Wild Draw Four," one "Wild Shuffle Hands" and three "Wild Customizable."
For each hand, a dealer is determined by having each player randomly draw one card from the deck. The player with the highest number card deals, and all cards are reshuffled into the deck to begin the dealing.
To start a hand, seven cards are dealt to each player, and the top card of the remaining deck is flipped over and set aside to begin the discard pile. The player to the dealer's left plays first unless the first card on the discard pile is an action or Wild card. On a player's turn, they must do one of the following:
-play one card matching the discard in color, number, or symbol,
-play a Wild card, or a playable Wild Draw Four card, or
-draw the top card from the deck, and play it if possible.
Cards are played by laying them face-up on top of the discard pile. Play initially proceeds clockwise around the table.
A player who plays their penultimate card must call "Uno" as a warning to the other players.
The first player to get rid of their last card ("going out") wins the hand and scores points for the cards held by the other players. Number cards count their face value, all action cards count 20, and Wild and Wild Draw Four cards count 50. If a Draw Two or Wild Draw Four card is played to go out, the next player in the sequence must draw the appropriate number of cards before the score is tallied.
If a player does not call "Uno" after laying down their penultimate card and is caught before the next player in sequence starts to take a turn (i.e., plays a card from their hand, draws from the deck, or touches the discard pile), they must draw two cards as a penalty. If the player is not caught in time or remembers to call "Uno" before being caught, no penalty applies to that player.
Complete one of the following tasks:
♠️ Read a book with a single person on the cover.
♥️ Read a book set in Ohio or the 1970s.
♣️ Read a book where a character gets a haircut.
♦️ Read a book where the author's first and last initials are found in MERLE ROBBINS.
NOTE: Sorry for the delay. We are traveling in Europe this month and I was without stable wi-fi for several days while we stayed in a quaint little thatched-roof cottage. We are back in civilization now. 😊
Mod
War may be the easiest card game around, which makes it great for playing with kids. However, since it moves quickly it doesn’t get boring like other “kids� card games. War is generally played between two people, although you could play with three of four (you’d probably want an additional deck of cards for 4 players).
The purpose of War is to collect all of the cards in a deck by playing the highest card in a series of faceoffs with another player. War is an easy game for young children to play, but is fun for kids ages five and older.
To play War, start by having one player deal out all of the cards in a standard 52 card deck so that each player has 26 cards. Each player must keep their 26 cards in a pile without looking at them.
When all of the cards have been dealt, game play begins with each player turning over the top card from their respective piles simultaneously. The player who turns over the highest card wins the round and collects both cards (aces are highest, and twos are lowest). These two cards should be turned facedown and placed at the bottom of the player’s pile.
The players continue turning over cards at the same time in this manner until both players turn over a card of the same value (like two fours or two queens, for instance). When this occurs, the players enter into a war. To do this, each player takes three cards from their pile and places them facedown on the table. They then turn a fourth card face up. The player whose card is the highest collects all ten cards from the war and places them at the bottom of their pile.
In the event that the two cards flipped over during the war phase match, players repeat the war sequence until someone wins. From there, play resumes normally. The player who ends up collecting all 52 of the cards wins the game.
Complete one of the following tasks:
♠️ Read a book with a MPG of War.
♥️ Read a book where the word WAR is found in the text. {State passage and location.}
♣️ Read a book where 2 characters "do battle" {your interpretation}.
♦️ Read a book that is fast-paced.
Mod
Skip-Bo is a commercial version of the card game Spite and Malice, a derivative of Russian Bank (also known as Crapette or Tunj), which in turn originates from Double Klondike (also called Double Solitaire). In 1967, Minnie Hazel "Skip" Bowman (1915�2001) of Brownfield, Texas, began producing a boxed edition of the game under the name SKIP-BO. In 1980 the game was purchased by International Games, which was subsequently bought by Mattel in 1992.
The deck consists of 162 cards, twelve each of the numbers 1 through 12 and eighteen "SKIP-BO" wild cards which may be played as any number. Alternatively, the 162 cards could be three regular decks of playing cards, including the jokers, with ace to queen corresponding to 1 to 12 and the kings and jokers corresponding to the SKIP-BO cards. Before 1980, the commercial game consisted of four decks of regular playing cards with eight SKIP-BO cards replacing the standard two jokers in each deck. In addition, the aces, twos and threes in the fourth deck were marked SKIP-BO. The remainder of the fourth deck was discarded. The cards come in blue, green, and red.
Two to four people can play at a time as individuals, or, six or more players in teams (no more than three partnerships). The object of the game is to be the first player or team to play out their entire stock pile(s). The player with the middle age goes first. Each player is dealt 30 cards (recommended 10-15 for faster gameplay) for their pile with only the top card visible, and a hand of five cards, and the remaining cards are placed face down to create a common draw pile. The shared play area allows up to four build piles, which must be started using either a "1" card or a Skip-Bo, and each player also has up to four personal discard piles. Each turn the active player draws until they have five cards in hand, though there are cases of not drawing more cards to equal five cards, instead doing a draw of a certain number of cards. They must play either the next card in sequential order or a wild Skip-Bo card, using either cards in hand, the top card of their stock pile, or the top card of any of their four discard piles. If the player can play all five cards from their hand, they draw five more and continue playing. When no more plays are available, the player discards one card to either an empty discard pile or on top of an existing one and play passes to the next player. When a build pile reaches 12, it is removed from the board and that space becomes empty for another pile to be started; play continues until one player has played their final start card.
Complete one of the following tasks:
♠️ Read a book where the timeline is difficult to follow {time travel, multiple POVs, etc}.
♥️ Read a book with a blue, green, or red cover.
♣️ Read a book set in a location which begins with a letter in RUSSIA.
♦️ Read a book by an author you don't want to skip {i.e. - a favorite author}.
Mod
Sequence is an abstract strategy board-and-card game. Sequence was invented by Doug Reuter. He originally called the game Sequence Five. He spent years developing the concept, and, in June 1981, granted Jax Ltd. an exclusive license to manufacture, distribute, and sell the board game Sequence and its subsequent variations. The game was first sold in a retail store in 1982. In 2017, Goliath Game Company bought Jax, and in early 2018 also bought all licensor rights and now owns 100% of the game Sequence. Doug Reuter is acknowledged as the inventor of Sequence on all newly produced copies of the game - both on the box and in the printed rules.
The object of the game is to form a row of five poker chips, called a sequence, on the game board by placing the chips on the board spaces corresponding to cards played from the player's hand.
Sequence can be played with 2 to 12 players. If there are more than three players, all players have to be divided evenly into two or three teams before the start of the game (The game cannot be played with 5, 7, or 11 players). With two teams, players alternate their physical positions with opponents around the playing surface. With three teams, players of a team must be positioned at every third player around the playing surface.
The game board is placed on a flat surface (such as the floor or a table) with enough room to allow for the game board, the draw deck, the discard pile(s) and marker chips. The jokers, if any, are removed from the deck as they are not used in the game.
To decide who goes first, all the cards are shuffled into a single deck. Each player cuts the deck by taking as many card from the deck as they want, then flips their card stack over. The player with the lowest card becomes the dealer, and the cards are shuffled again. Each player or team then chooses a set of poker chips; all members of each team share chips of the same color (Blue and green chips are always used, while red chips are only used for three-player or three-team games).
The player to the left of the dealer goes first.
On their turn, the player chooses a card from their hand to play, then places a marker chip on one of the corresponding spaces of the game board (Example: An Ace of Diamonds is played from a player's hand; that player places a chip on the Ace of Diamonds on the board). Jacks have special powers. Two-Eyed Jacks are considered wild cards and may be used to place a chip on any open space on the board. One-Eyed Jacks allow whoever played one to remove an opponent's chip from a space. Players may use the Two-Eyed Jacks to complete a row or block an opponent, while One-Eyed Jacks can remove an opponent's advantage. One-Eyed Jacks cannot be used to remove a marker chip that is already part of a completed sequence; once a sequence is achieved by a player or team, it stands.
Each played card then goes face-up into a "Discard" pile. At the end of their turn, the player draws a new card from the draw deck, after which play passes to the player to the left.
A player may place chips on either of the appropriate card spaces as long as it is not already covered by a marker chip of any color.
If a player has a card which does not have an open space on the game board, the card is considered "dead" and may be discarded during that player's turn. The player then draws a new card from the draw deck before proceeding with normal play.
The game ends when a player or team completes a set number of sequences. In a two-player or two-team game, the number of sequences needed to win is two, while in a three-player or three-team game, only one sequence is needed to win the game.
If no one in the end manages to make the target number of sequences, the game ends in a draw.
Complete one of the following tasks:
♠️ Read a book in sequence - part of a series of books.
♥️ Read a book where the MC follows a logical sequence of events {your interpretation}.
♣️ Read a book where the first letter of every word in the title can be found in GOLIATH GAME COMPANY {three word minimum}.
♦️ Read a book where the author's first and last initials are found in DOUG REUTER.
Mod
Poker is played with 2 - 10 players and is considered the ultimate bluffing game. No Limit Texas Hold 'Em Poker has been popularized with the help of television and local tournaments. Players "bet" chips on whether or not they have the best five card poker hand. Many say it is only fun when played for money, suggesting that the thrill is in the gambling rather than the game-play. Even if you do not play for money, you do have to approach the game semi-seriously for it to be fun, otherwise it is too easy for someone to play foolishly and hand another player the game. Poker is a must for those who enjoy bluffing.
In most modern poker games, the first round of betting begins with one or more of the players making some form of a forced bet (the blind or ante). In standard poker, each player bets according to the rank they believe their hand is worth as compared to the other players. The action then proceeds clockwise as each player in turn must either match (or "call") the maximum previous bet, or fold, losing the amount bet so far and all further involvement in the hand. A player who matches a bet may also "raise" (increase) the bet. The betting round ends when all players have either called the last bet or folded. If all but one player folds on any round, the remaining player collects the pot without being required to reveal their hand. If more than one player remains in contention after the final betting round, a showdown takes place where the hands are revealed, and the player with the winning hand takes the pot.
With the exception of initial forced bets, money is only placed into the pot voluntarily by a player who either believes the bet has positive expected value or who is trying to bluff other players for various strategic reasons. Thus, while the outcome of any particular hand significantly involves chance, the long-run expectations of the players are determined by their actions chosen on the basis of probability, psychology, and game theory.
While Poker's exact origin is the subject of debate, many game scholars point to the French game Poque and the Persian game As-Nas as possible early inspirations. For example, in the 1937 edition of Foster's Complete Hoyle, R. F. Foster wrote that "the game of poker, as first played in the United States, five cards to each player from a twenty-card pack, is undoubtedly the Persian game of As-Nas." However, in the 1990s the notion that poker is a direct derivative of As-Nas began to be challenged by gaming historians including David Parlett. What is certain, however, is that Poker was popularized in the American South in the early 19th century, as gambling riverboats in the Mississippi River and around New Orleans during the 1830s helped spread the game. One early description of poker played on a steamboat in 1829 is recorded by the English actor, Joe Cowell.
Complete one of the following tasks:
♠️ Read a book set in France.
♥️ Read a book with a 2, 1, or 0 in the page count.
♣️ Read a book with a MPG of Psychological Thriller.
♦️ Read a book with at least one scene that takes place on a boat.
Mod
The origins of Card Solitaire, or Patience, are unclear, but the earliest records appear in the late 1700s across northern Europe and Scandinavia. The term Patiencespiel appears in a German book published in 1788. The game was also reported to appear in Sweden and Russia books in the early 1800s. There are additional references to Patience in French literature. In the United States, the first card solitaire book, Patience: A series of thirty games with cards, was published by Ednah Cheney in 1870.
Solitaire is an exciting way to pass the time - anywhere, any time. Whether you are at home on a lazy day, at the office taking a break, or outside with your laptop soaking in the sun, you can spice up your day with a game of Solitaire.
The object of this strategy game is to place all of the cards into the four foundations at the top. The cards in each foundation slot must be of the same suit and in ascending order (Ace to King). To achieve this, stack the cards on the table in descending order (King to Ace). Make sure to alternate colors. Beat the game when you have sorted all cards into the foundations.
Complete one of the following tasks:
♠️ Read a book set in Europe.
♥️ Read a book that has been known by more than one name.
♣️ Read a book where the author's first and last initials are found in PATIENCESPIEL.
♦️ Read a book that was easy to read and pass the time with.
Mod
Crescent is a solitaire card game played with two decks of playing cards mixed together. The game is so called because when the cards are dealt properly, the resulting piles should form a large arc or a crescent.
First, one king and one ace of each suit are removed to form the bases for the foundations. The kings are placed on a row, while the aces are placed below the kings. The ninety-six remaining cards are dealt into 16 piles of six cards each, faced down. If the player chooses, the piles should form a large arc, as mentioned above. After the cards are dealt, the top card of each pile is turned face up.
The object is to move all the cards from the semicircle tableau to the foundations. The kings are built down by suit up to aces and the aces are built up, also by suit, to kings.
The top cards of each pile in the semicircle are available to play on the foundations or around the tableau. Only one card can be moved at a time and building on the tableau is either up or down by suit and can go round-the-corner (placing a king over an ace and vice versa). Once a face-down card becomes exposed, it is turned face up. Spaces are not filled.
When the king and ace foundations are in sequence, one can transfer the cards from one foundation to the other except the base cards.
When all possible moves have been made—or the player has made all moves he wanted to make—a special redeal move is made. The bottom card of each pile on the semicircle is placed on the top without disturbing the order of the other cards in the pile. This can only be done three times in the entire game.
The game is won when all 104 cards end up in the foundations.
Complete one of the following tasks:
♠️ Read a book with a sub-title.
♥️ Read a book with a moon or moonlight shown on the cover. {Post cover.}
♣️ Read a book with the word CRESCENT found in the text. {State passage and location.}
♦️ Read a book that is a spin-off of another book or series.
Mod
Three thirteen is a variation of the card game Rummy. It is an eleven-round game played with two or more players. It requires two decks of cards with the jokers removed. Like other Rummy games, once the hands are dealt, the remainder of the cards are placed face down on the table. The top card from the deck is flipped face up and put beside the deck to start the discard pile.
Each player attempts to meld all of the cards in their hand into sets. A set may be either:
- Three or more cards of the same rank, such as 7� 7� 7�.
- A sequence of three or more cards of the same suit, such as 4� 5� 6�.
- A flush of 3 or more such as 4� 8� 2�
You can call the win before the play on the turn of the kings.
Sets can contain more than three cards, however, the same card cannot be included in multiple sets.
Once a player has melded all of their cards into sets, they "go out". They must still discard when "going out", and the remaining players are given one more draw to better their hands. The winner of a game of Three Thirteen is the player who, at the end of the final round, has accumulated the fewest points.
You can play this game with anywhere from 2 to 6 players. You’ll need one deck of cards for every two players.
There are 11 rounds to the game. In each round, the number of cards dealt changes, and the requirements for laying down your hand changes. The wild card also changes!
Complete one of the following tasks:
♠️ Read a book with a 3 or a 13 in the page count.
♥️ Read a book that is very similar to another book you read in the past.
♣️ Read a book that has a "wild" plot {your interpretation}.
♦️ Read a book with at least 11 chapters.
Mod
Spades is a trick-taking card game devised in the United States in the 1930s. It can be played as either a partnership or solo/"cutthroat" game. The object is to take the number of tricks (also known as "books") that were bid before play of the hand began. Spades is a descendant of the Whist family of card games, which also includes Bridge, Hearts, and Oh Hell. Its major difference as compared to other Whist variants is that, instead of trump being decided by the highest bidder or at random, the Spade suit always trumps, hence the name.
The game's rise to popularity in the U.S. came during World War II, when it was spread by soldiers traveling around the globe. The game's popularity in the armed forces stems from its simplicity compared to Bridge and Euchre and the fact that it can be more easily interrupted than Poker, all of which were also popular military card games. After the war, veterans brought the game back home to the U.S., where due to the GI Bill it spread to and became popular among college students as well as in-home games. It also remained widely popular in countries in which U.S. troops were stationed, both in WWII and later deployments.
Complete one of the following tasks:
♠️ Read a book with a character who is a soldier.
♥️ Read a book set in the United States.
♣️ Read a book by an author who would have been alive in the 1930s.
♦️ Read a book with a person wearing a suit on the cover.
Mod
Crazy Eights is a two person card game that is easy enough for young kids to play and complex enough to keep older kids or adults having fun too. The goal of this game is to be the first person to get rid of all of the cards in your hand.
To play Crazy Eights with two people, the dealer deals five cards to each player. The dealer then places the pack in the middle of the table to serve as the “stockpile.� The top card of the stockpile is turned face up and placed in a separate pile. This card is the starter.
The player who did not deal begins play by placing one card face up on top of the starter pile. Each card played must match the card showing on the starter pile, either in suit or denomination. For instance, if a Jack of diamonds is the top card on the starter pile, either a Jack in any suit or a diamond of any kind may be played on top of it. If the starter card was a five of hearts, on the other hand, a player could play another five card or another heart of any number on top of it.
If a player’s turn comes and they are unable to play on the starter pile, that player must draw cards from the stockpile until a play is possible or the stock is exhausted. That means you could end up drawing one card or, well, a lot more depending on your luck! If the stock runs out, the player must pass their turn. It’s also okay for a player to draw from the stock even if they already have a playable card in their hand.
In this game, all eight cards are wild � hence the name “Crazy Eights!� This means that an eight of any suit can be played at any time, and the player may designate it as any suit (but not any number). The next player must play a card of the specified suit or an eight. The player who plays all the cards in their hand first wins the game.
Complete one of the following tasks:
♠️ Read a book where the page count adds up to 8. {For example: 323; 3 + 2 + 3 = 8.}
♥️ Read a book where some wild or crazy happens {your interpretation}.
♣️ Read a book with more than one 8 in the publication date.
♦️ Read a book where the MC's first initial is found in EIGHTS.
Mod
Canasta, Spanish for "basket," is a card game of the Rummy family of games believed to be a variant of 500 Rum. Although many variations exist for two, three, five or six players, it is most commonly played by four in two partnerships with two standard decks of cards. Players attempt to make melds of seven cards of the same rank and "go out" by playing all cards in their hands. It is the most recent card game to have achieved worldwide status as a classic.
The game of Canasta was devised by attorney Segundo Sanchez Santos and his Bridge partner, architect Alberto Serrato, in Montevideo, Uruguay, in 1939, in an attempt to design a time-efficient game that was as engaging as Bridge. They tried different formulas before inviting Arturo Gomez Hartley and Ricardo Sanguinetti to test their game.
After a positive reception of Canasta at their local bridge club, the Jockey Club, in the 1940s the game quickly spread north throughout South America in myriad variations to Chile, Peru, Brazil and Argentina, where its rules were further refined. It was introduced to the United States in 1949 by Josefina Artayeta de Viel (New York), where it was then referred to as the Argentine Rummy game by Ottilie H. Reilly in 1949 and Michael Scully of Coronet magazine in 1953. In 1949/51 the New York Regency Club wrote the Official Canasta Laws, which were published together with game experts from South America by the National Canasta Laws Commissions of the US and Argentina.
Canasta became rapidly popular in the United States in the 1950s with many card sets, card trays and books being produced.
Santos and Serrato never patented the game rules, and thus never received royalties from the later Canasta boom.
Complete one of the following tasks:
♠️ Read a book with the word BASKET in the text. {State passage and location.}
♥️ Read a book with a character who is an attorney.
♣️ Read a book where one character tests something for another character. {Use your imagination.}
♦️ Read a book set in the 1940s or 1950s.
Mod
Exploding Kittens is a casual dedicated deck card game designed by Matthew Inman of The Oatmeal webcomic, Elan Lee and Shane Small, and first published by The Oatmeal in 2015. Beginning as a Kickstarter project seeking US$10,000 in crowdfunding, it exceeded its goal in eight minutes.
On January 27, 2015, after seven days, it passed 103,000 backers setting the record for the most backers in Kickstarter history. At completion on February 19, 2015, it had US$8,782,571 in pledges by 219,382 backers. The campaign ended as the fourth most funded campaign on the crowdfunding site.
The first play test of Exploding Kittens was recorded on YouTube by Smosh Games, who had the first deck. Delivery to backers started in late July 2015; all backers received the game by September 2015. Exploding Kittens is described as a “strategic card game about cats and destruction."
All cards are put into a deck, except for the Defuse and Exploding Kitten cards. The deck is shuffled and each player draws 7 cards and takes a Defuse card. The Exploding Kitten cards are then shuffled back into the deck so that the number of Exploding Kitten cards in the deck is one less than the number of players. The remaining Defuse cards are then also put back in the deck. A turn order is decided upon any trivial condition.
Each player may then play as many cards from their hand as they like on their turn, or choose not to do so, before drawing a card. Players are not to tell any other player what cards are in their hand. Played cards are put into a discard pile.
If a player draws an Exploding Kitten card, they must show it immediately and they are out of the game, unless they have a Defuse card. The last player still in the game wins.
Additionally, the creators released a number of expansion packs, most of which require a copy of Exploding Kittens to play.
The first, Imploding Kittens, was released in October 2016. It increases the number of players from 5 to 6, and adds 20 new cards. On July 16, 2018, it was announced that a second expansion, Streaking Kittens, would be released on October 9, 2018, containing 15 new cards/mechanics. The third expansion, Barking Kittens, was released on June 5, 2020.
Complete one of the following tasks:
♠️ Read a book that has been expanded upon {is part of a series}.
♥️ Read a book with a kitten or a crowd of people {your discretion} on the cover.
♣️ Read a book where the MC has a kitten or a cat as a pet or a sidekick.
♦️ Read a book with a feline shifter.
Mod
All you need to play spoons is a deck of playing cards and some spoons. You will need one fewer spoon than you have people playing (so if you have 8 people playing, you need 7 spoons).
The dealer shuffles the cards and deals out four cards to each player. Dealer keeps the remaining cards in a draw pile to her right. Set the spoons (one fewer spoon than there are players) in the center of the table or circle.
Everyone picks up their cards and looks at them.
The dealer picks up one card from the pile to her right. She quickly adds the card to her hand and then discards one of her cards to the left, where the next person picks it up.
The goal is to get four of a kind in your hand, so the dealer quickly decides as she picks up each new card whether to keep it (if it matches a card she already has) or discard it. If she keeps the card she picked up, she discards another card to her left, so she is always holding four cards.
The person next to the dealer picks up the card the dealer discarded, and then discards one of his cards to the left.
Play continues around in a circle, with everyone picking up one card from the right (where another player has discarded it) and discarding one card to the left (where the next player can pick it up).
As soon as someone gets four of a kind in their hand, they grab one of the spoons from the center.
When one spoon is grabbed, all the other players also try to grab one of the remaining spoons.
Whoever does not get a spoon earns a letter in the word “spoons�: first “S�, then “P�, etc. Someone earns a letter each round. Players are out of the game once they have spelled “spoons� and the winner is the one still in.
Complete one of the following tasks:
♠️ Read a book with two Os or two Ss in the title.
♥️ Read a book with the word SPOON in the text. {State passage and location.}
♣️ Read a book where the MC eats a meal.
♦️ Read a book that feels fast-paced.
Mod
Blackjack, the most widely played casino banking game in the world, uses decks of 52 cards and descends from a global family of casino banking games known as Twenty-One. This family of card games also includes the British game of Pontoon, the European game, Vingt-et-Un, and the Russian game Ochko. Blackjack players do not compete against each other. The game is a comparing card game where each player competes against the dealer.
At a blackjack table, the dealer faces five to nine playing positions from behind a semicircular table. Between one and eight standard 52-card decks are shuffled together. To start each round, players place bets in the "betting box" at each position.
The dealer deals from their left ("first base") to their far right ("third base"). Each box gets an initial hand of two cards visible to the people playing on it. The dealer's hand gets its first card face up, and, in "hole card" games, immediately gets a second card face down (the hole card), which the dealer peeks at but only reveals when it makes the dealer's hand a blackjack. Hole card games are sometimes played on tables with a small mirror or electronic sensor used to peek securely at the hole card.
Dealers deal the cards from one or two handheld decks, from a dealer's shoe, or from a shuffling machine. Single cards are dealt to each wagered-on position clockwise from the dealer's left, followed by a single card to the dealer, followed by an additional card to each of the positions in play. The players' initial cards may be dealt face up or face down (more common in single-deck games).
The object of the game is to win money by creating card totals higher than those of the dealer's hand but not exceeding 21, or by stopping at a total in the hope that the dealer will bust. On their turn, players choose to "hit" (take a card), "stand" (end their turn and stop without taking a card), "double" (double their wager, take a single card, and finish), "split" (if the two cards have the same value, separate them to make two hands), or "surrender" (give up a half-bet and retire from the game).
Number cards count as their number, the jack, queen, and king ("face cards" or "pictures") count as 10, and aces count as either 1 or 11 according to the player's choice. If the total exceeds 21 points, it busts, and all bets on it immediately lose.
A player total of 21 on the first two cards is a "natural" or "blackjack", and the player wins immediately unless the dealer also has one, in which case the hand ties. In the case of a tie ("push" or "standoff"), bets are returned without adjustment. A blackjack beats any hand that is not a blackjack, even one with a value of 21.
Complete one of the following tasks:
♠️ Read a book where the MC is under 21 years of age.
♥️ Read a book that has been translated into Russian. {You do not have to read the Russian edition. 😉}
♣️ Read a book where the author's first and last initials are found in VINGT-ET-UN.
♦️ Read a book with a color in the title.
Mod
Pyramid is a patience or solitaire game of the Simple Addition family, where the object is to get all the cards from the pyramid to the foundation.
The object of the game is to remove pairs of cards that add up to a total of 13, the equivalent of the highest valued card in the deck, from a pyramid arrangement of 28 cards. When using the standard 52-card deck, Jacks are valued at 11, Queens at 12, and Kings at 13. Under the strictest rules, the odds of winning are around 1 in 50.
To set up the pyramid, one card is dealt face up at the top of the playing area, then two cards beneath and partially covering it, then three beneath them, and so on completing with a row of seven cards for a total of 28 cards dealt (or six rows of 21 cards). The remaining cards are placed to the side face down, and make up the Stock.
To play, pairs of uncovered cards can be removed to the foundation if their values total 13. Thus, kings can be removed immediately to the foundation. In order to be removed, cards must not be covered, so when an Ace rests on a Queen, that Queen can not be removed. Discarded cards are removed from play and cannot be re-matched with other cards.
You may draw cards from the stock one at a time and match them with any exposed card. If no match is made, the drawn stock card is played into a waste pile. The top card of the waste pile can be matched at any time with the next card drawn from the stock, or any uncovered card in the pyramid. Once the stock is exhausted and/or no more pairs can be made, the game ends. (A variation, Par Pyramid, allows the waste to be turned over twice and dealt as a new stock.)
To score, count the number of remaining face up cards in the pyramid. A perfect score is therefore zero, where all cards have been matched into the Foundation.
To be considered won, all cards (cards from the pyramid and cards from the stock) must be moved to the foundation.
Complete one of the following tasks:
♠️ Read a book set in or written by an author from Egypt.
♥️ Read a book where the page count adds up to 13. {For example, 283; 2 + 8 + 3 = 13.}
♣️ Read a book where the MC moves from one place to another {homes, jobs, cities, etc.}
♦️ Read a book where the author's first and last initials are found in PYRAMID.
Mod
The rules of Old Maid were first recorded in 1884 by Charles M. Green and referred to in Bazaar, Exchange and Mart in 1883 as a "newly invented game." However, it may well be much older and derived from the French game of Vieux Garçon, whose rules first appear in 1853, or from the German game of Black Peter whose rules are recorded as early as 1821. All these games are probably ancient and derived from simple gambling games in which the aim was to determine a loser who had to pay for the next round of drinks.
The game originally employed a pack of 32 or 52 French cards, the queen of diamonds or jack of spades typically being the odd card and the player who is last in and left holding a single queen or jack becoming the "old maid," "vieux garçon," or "Black Peter," depending on the game. The term "old maid" predates the game, and is a way to refer to a childless or unmarried woman.
There are retail card decks specifically designed for playing Old Maid, but the game can just as easily be played with a standard 52-card deck. When using a regular deck, a card is either added or removed, resulting in one unmatchable card. The most common choices are to remove the Queen of Clubs or to add a single Joker. It is also possible to remove one card face-down from the top of the deck before hands are dealt; if this is done, players will not know which card is unmatchable. The unmatchable card becomes the "old maid", and whoever holds it at the end of the game is the loser.
The dealer shuffles and deals all of the cards to the players, one card at a time. Some players may have one more card than others; this is acceptable. Players look at their cards and discard any pairs they have (e.g., two kings) face up. Players can only discard pairs, so a three-of-a-kind is prohibited.
Beginning with the dealer, each player takes turns offering their hand face-down to the player on their left. That player selects a card without looking and adds it to their hand. This player then sees if the selected card makes a pair with any of their original cards. If so, the pair is discarded face up as well. The player who just took a card then offers their hand to the person on their left, and so on.
The game continues with players taking cards and discarding pairs until no more pairs can be made. The player with the card that has no match is "stuck with the old maid" and loses. When playing with more than two players, the game is somewhat unusual in that there is one single loser rather than one distinct winner.
Complete one of the following tasks:
♠️ Read a book with an "old maid" MC {your interpretation}.
♥️ Read a book where one character buys a drink of any kind for another character.
♣️ Read a book with a colorful cover {at least 4 colors}.
♦️ Read a book set in the 1800s.
Mod
Slap Jack is a fun, simple card game played with 2 - 8 people. The game is played with a standard 52-card deck. To play, deal out all of the cards to all of the players, and take turns placing in the center of the table. As you do this, keep an eye for a Jack, and try to be the first to slap it! The goal of the game is to win all of the cards, which is done by slapping the Jack first. Once a player collects all of the cards, they win the game.
A 52-card deck is divided into face-down stacks as equally as possible between all players. One player removes the top card of their stack and places it face-up on the playing surface within reach of all players. The players take turns doing this in a clockwise manner until a jack is placed on the pile. At this point, any and all players may attempt to slap the pile with the hand they didn't use to place the card; whoever covers the stack with his or her hand first takes the pile, shuffles it, and adds it to the bottom of their stack. If another player puts their card over the jack before it is slapped, the jack and the cards underneath can't be taken by a player until the next jack is revealed. When a player has run out of cards, they have one more chance to slap a jack and get back in the game, but if they fail, they are out. Gameplay continues with hands of this sort until one player has acquired all of the cards.
In a popular variation with a regular deck, the person covering the cards must simultaneously say "Slapjack!" If the person fails to say this, they do not get the pile. Additionally, if the player covers the pile and says "Slapjack", and the card is not a jack, then the other players get to divide the pile evenly among themselves.
Complete one of the following tasks:
♠️ Read a book that had a simple plot and was easy to read.
♥️ Read a book where the MC yells at or abuses someone.
♣️ Read a book with children as major characters.
♦️ Read a book where the MCs first initial is found in JACK.
Mod
Cards Against Humanity is an adult party game in which players complete fill-in-the-blank statements, using words or phrases typically deemed offensive, risqué, or politically incorrect, printed on playing cards. It has been compared to the earlier card game Apples to Apples (1999).
The game originated with a Kickstarter campaign in 2011. The game's title refers to the phrase "crimes against humanity," reflecting its politically incorrect content.
Cards Against Humanity was created by a group of eight Highland Park High School alumni. Heavily influenced by the popular Apples to Apples card game, it was initially named Cardenfreude (a pun on Schadenfreude) and involved a group of players writing out the most abstract and, often, humorous response to the topic question. The name was later changed to Cards Against Humanity, with the answers pre-written on the white cards known today. Co-creator Ben Hantoot cited experiences with various games such as Magic: The Gathering, Balderdash, and Charades as inspiration, also noting that Mad Libs was "the most direct influence" for the game.
The game was financed with a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign and influenced by a previous crowd-funded campaign for a book on the design of then-President of the United States Barack Obama's campaign. The campaign started on December 1, 2010; it met its goal of US$4,000 (equivalent to $4,971 in 2021) in two weeks. The campaign ended on January 30, 2011, and raised over $15,000 (equivalent to $18,640 in 2021), just over 400% of its original goal. With this additional money raised towards the game, the creators added fifty more cards to the game itself.
To start the game, each player draws ten white cards.
According to the rule book provided with the game, the person who most recently defecated (a primitive form of randomization) begins as the "Card Czar" (or "Card Tsar") and plays a black card, face up. The Card Czar then reads the question or fill-in-the-blanks phrase on the black card out loud.
The other players answer the question or fill in the blanks by each passing one white card (or however many required by the black card), face down, to the Card Czar.
The Card Czar shuffles all of the answers and shares each card combination with the group. For full effect, the Card Czar should usually re-read the black card before presenting each answer. The Card Czar then picks the funniest play, and whoever submitted it gets one "Awesome Point."
After the round, a new player becomes the Card Czar, and everyone draws back up to 7 white cards.
The part of speech of a white card is a noun or gerund, including both single words and phrase constructions. Black cards are either fill-in-the-blank statements or questions. Both white and black cards break these rules on rare occasions.
The rules do not state how to win the game—the objective being simply to have fun. However, a popular way to win for most players is whoever has the most black cards or points at the end of the game (black cards are obtained on who is funnier). A fun way to end off the session of Card's against humanity is to end off with the Haiku card since it can help get rid of all of your "bad" white cards.
The rules in Cards Against Humanity are flexible and can be altered with the many house rules (which are listed in the rules) that players can incorporate (e.g. winning cards are chosen democratically, ability to trade points for cards, points given by ranks, etc.). The official rules include additional provisions for gambling previously won "Awesome Points" for the right to play additional white cards during a round.
Since 2013, the creators of Cards Against Humanity have held satirical promotions on Black Friday. In 2013, an "anti-sale" was held in which the game's cost was raised by $5. Despite its higher price, the game maintained its best-selling status on Amazon and experienced a minor spike in sales during that period.
Complete one of the following tasks:
♠️ Read a book you consider risqué {your interpretation}.
♥️ Read a book with a MPG of Adult.
♣️ Read a book with a black and white cover.
♦️ Read a book you paid more for than you would have liked.
Mod
Contract Bridge, or simply Bridge, is a trick-taking card game using a standard 52-card deck. In its basic format, it is played by four players in two competing partnerships, with partners sitting opposite each other around a table. Millions of people play bridge worldwide in clubs, tournaments, online and with friends at home, making it one of the world's most popular card games, particularly among seniors. The World Bridge Federation (WBF) is the governing body for international competitive bridge, with numerous other bodies governing it at the regional level.
The game consists of a number of deals, each progressing through four phases. The cards are dealt to the players; then the players call (or bid) in an auction seeking to take the contract, specifying how many tricks the partnership receiving the contract (the declaring side) needs to take to receive points for the deal. During the auction, partners use their bids to also exchange information about their hands, including overall strength and distribution of the suits; no other means of conveying or implying any information is permitted. The cards are then played, the declaring side trying to fulfill the contract, and the defenders trying to stop the declaring side from achieving its goal. The deal is scored based on the number of tricks taken, the contract, and various other factors which depend to some extent on the variation of the game being played.
Rubber Bridge is the most popular variation for casual play, but most club and tournament play involves some variant of Duplicate Bridge, where the cards are not re-dealt on each occasion, but the same deal is played by two or more sets of players (or "tables") to enable comparative scoring.
The four players sit in two partnerships with players sitting opposite their partners. A cardinal direction is assigned to each seat, so that one partnership sits in North and South, while the other sits in West and East. The cards may be freshly dealt or, in duplicate bridge games, pre-dealt. All that is needed in basic games are the cards and a method of keeping score, but there is often other equipment on the table, such as a board containing the cards to be played (in duplicate bridge), bidding boxes, or screens.
Complete one of the following tasks:
♠️ Read a book with a one-word title.
♥️ Read a book you consider a classic.
♣️ Read a book where a carinal direction is found in the text, NORTH, SOUTH, EAST, or WEST. {State passage and location.}
♦️ Read a book that's been on your TBR for more than 1 year.
Play Your Cards Right ~ Card Table
Find a new card game posted below on the 1st and 15th of every month!