Customer Reviews

World's Best Card Game for One

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I collect books on solitaire. I would not recommend this
to anyone but a collector -- there are much better books
in print, such as Morehead and Mott-Smith's "The Complete
Book of Solitaire and Patience Games" or Parlett's
"Teach Yourself Card Games for One". Barry claims to
have selected the best games in her book, but it is still
littered with junk like Auld Lang Syne (a virtually
unwinnable game with no skill). The descriptions are
often incomplete and occasionally wrong (her description
of Pyramid, allowing cards to be used a second time after
being discarded, is nonsensical). She describes Storehouse
as a minor variant of Canfield; it's actually a forerunner
where cards are packed in suit. She rates games by
amount of space used (an interesting feature) and level
(it's not clear if this is supposed to be win rate, in
which case many of the ratings are wrong, or something
else). Myron Miller's illustrations are nice, but the
book has little else to recommend it, either in selection
of games, or clarity and accuracy.

This book makes no attempt to be comprehensive in its listing of solitaire games, but the games it does describe are described in large print, with diagrams, and examples for the games that are not so obvious. This was useful to me as some of the more comprehensive books (and web-sites) keep the directions minimal. Certainly a good buy at this price.

UPDATE: This book is now published under the title GREAT SOLITAIRE GAMES.