Who needs a holiday?

I know i do. After the busiest two months for boardgameguru (with the exception of December 2009) since i started trading i am feeling a little in need of a break. I had been puzzled as to why June and July have been so busy - it's not been an excpetioanl period for new releases, and i thought we are at the start of the mother of all austerity drives in the nation's finances. The answer, i understand is that folks are cutting back on expensive holidays. So instead of an all inclusive in Ibiza we are camping in Cornwall, saving a grand or so, and spending a % of the savings on 'treats' - so hobby shops are not doing too badly. Moreover, i think people are buying more games to take on their holiday; perhaps not trusting to the British weather.

My 5 day holiday will be spent with my family in Rugby (long gone are trips to the airport). And with a nephew and niece waitng who lap up boardgames i have got to plan my packing quite carefully - last year they loved Finca, Livingstone, Carcassonne and Niagara. This year, a year older, i think it might be time to try them on some new stuff. So far i have ruled out Brass and 18xx but that leaves quite a few options...

Reading matter

There are very few books about Boardgames. I should not be too suprised given the wealth of information on the net. However, one book that i have just got back into stock and have been reading and re-reading is 'Hobby Games : The Best 100'. It's 100 short (3 or 3 pages) articles by designers and publisher's about their favourite games by other designers. For such a diverse group of writers the standard is very high. Many of the games are celebrations of games from the writer's youth - i.e when they had time to play long games. It has made me re-evaluate how i look at some of the games listed, and even purchase a few. Thoroughly reccomended (as is it's companion book 'Family Games : the Best 100')

Not reccomended though is 'Things we think about games' - this book is a collection of 140 Pensees garnered from an internet site. The contributors are no less authoratative than the writers in the 'Hobby Games book' - its just that the internet wisdom does not translate to the printed page. Many of the 140 thoughts are one liners occupying a whole page - not exactly value for money, even more so when the pearl of wisdom is to 'Keep your nails trim' or to 'shuffle the discard pile just before needed' .May be these thoughts caused an interesting internet debate - on the printed page they just look shallow and pointless.