Download or read book Seven Games A Human History written by Oliver Roeder and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2022-01-25 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A group biography of seven enduring and beloved games, and the story of why—and how—we play them. Checkers, backgammon, chess, and Go. Poker, Scrabble, and bridge. These seven games, ancient and modern, fascinate millions of people worldwide. In Seven Games, Oliver Roeder charts their origins and historical importance, the delightful arcana of their rules, and the ways their design makes them pleasurable. Roeder introduces thrilling competitors, such as evangelical minister Marion Tinsley, who across forty years lost only three games of checkers; Shusai, the Master, the last Go champion of imperial Japan, defending tradition against “modern rationalism”; and an IBM engineer who created a backgammon program so capable at self-learning that NASA used it on the space shuttle. He delves into the history and lore of each game: backgammon boards in ancient Egypt, the Indian origins of chess, how certain shells from a particular beach in Japan make the finest white Go stones. Beyond the cultural and personal stories, Roeder explores why games, seemingly trivial pastimes, speak so deeply to the human soul. He introduces an early philosopher of games, the aptly named Bernard Suits, and visits an Oxford cosmologist who has perfected a computer that can effectively play bridge, a game as complicated as human language itself. Throughout, Roeder tells the compelling story of how humans, pursuing scientific glory and competitive advantage, have invented AI programs better than any human player, and what that means for the games—and for us. Funny, fascinating, and profound, Seven Games is a story of obsession, psychology, history, and how play makes us human.
Download or read book The Book of the Duchess written by Geoffrey Chaucer and published by DigiCat. This book was released on 2022-08-10 with total page 50 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Book of the Duchess is a surreal poem that was presumably written as an elegy for Blanche, Duchess of Lancaster's (the wife of Geoffrey Chaucer's patron, the royal Duke of Lancaster, John of Gaunt) death in 1368 or 1369. The poem was written a few years after the event and is widely regarded as flattering to both the Duke and the Duchess. It has 1334 lines and is written in octosyllabic rhyming couplets.
Download or read book Four Years Residence in the West Indies written by Frederic William Naylor Bayley and published by London : W. Kidd ; Dublin : W.F. Wakeman ; Edinburgh : A. Black ; Glasgow : R. and J. Finlay. This book was released on 1833 with total page 780 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Backgammon the Cruelest Game written by Barclay Cooke and published by Random House (NY). This book was released on 1974 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An explanation of the rules, moves, tactics and psychology of Backgammon.
Download or read book Breathe written by Muriel Brakefield and published by WestBow Press. This book was released on 2013-04 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: brEAThe, a memoir, takes you into a world where the primal instincts for survival, to eat and breathe, are all but extinguished. Growing up in a picture-perfect Christian family, Muriel's formation as a young child and the shaping of her spiritual understanding are riddled with cracks. The veiled dysfunction and forgotten secrets send her reeling into an isolated abyss. Struggling with anorexia and depression from the age of fifteen through adulthood, Muriel struggles to make sense of the chaos. Then she remembers, shattering the façade. Amid the rubble of the soulquake, a life must be painstakingly reconstructed. Through facing the dark and difficult truths of her family secrets, Muriel moves from despair through forgiveness, finding freedom to live in a spacious place of abundance and peace. This tale of triumphal overcoming is a hope-filled celebration, a testimony to the resilience of the human spirit. , p>For people trapped in pain, or for those who love them, this story will shine light into those dark crevasses, offering a lifeline of hope and courage.
Download or read book The Things They Carried written by Tim O'Brien and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2009-10-13 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A classic work of American literature that has not stopped changing minds and lives since it burst onto the literary scene, The Things They Carried is a ground-breaking meditation on war, memory, imagination, and the redemptive power of storytelling. The Things They Carried depicts the men of Alpha Company: Jimmy Cross, Henry Dobbins, Rat Kiley, Mitchell Sanders, Norman Bowker, Kiowa, and the character Tim O’Brien, who has survived his tour in Vietnam to become a father and writer at the age of forty-three. Taught everywhere—from high school classrooms to graduate seminars in creative writing—it has become required reading for any American and continues to challenge readers in their perceptions of fact and fiction, war and peace, courage and fear and longing. The Things They Carried won France's prestigious Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger and the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize; it was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award.
Download or read book Hard Times written by Charles Dickens and published by . This book was released on 1854 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Albion s Seed written by David Hackett Fischer and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1991-03-14 with total page 981 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This fascinating book is the first volume in a projected cultural history of the United States, from the earliest English settlements to our own time. It is a history of American folkways as they have changed through time, and it argues a thesis about the importance for the United States of having been British in its cultural origins. While most people in the United States today have no British ancestors, they have assimilated regional cultures which were created by British colonists, even while preserving ethnic identities at the same time. In this sense, nearly all Americans are "Albion's Seed," no matter what their ethnicity may be. The concluding section of this remarkable book explores the ways that regional cultures have continued to dominate national politics from 1789 to 1988, and still help to shape attitudes toward education, government, gender, and violence, on which differences between American regions are greater than between European nations.
Download or read book Man Play and Games written by Roger Caillois and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: According to Roger Caillois, play is an occasion of pure waste. In spite of this - or because of it - play constitutes an essential element of human social and spiritual development. In this study, the author defines play as a free and voluntary activity that occurs in a pure space, isolated and protected from the rest of life.
Download or read book Rerolling Boardgames written by Douglas Brown and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2020-08-28 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite the advent and explosion of videogames, boardgames--from fast-paced party games to intensely strategic titles--have in recent years become more numerous and more diverse in terms of genre, ethos and content. The growth of gaming events and conventions such as Essen Spiel, Gen Con and the UK Games EXPO, as well as crowdfunding through sites like Kickstarter, has diversified the evolution of game development, which is increasingly driven by fans, and boardgames provide an important glue to geek culture. In academia, boardgames are used in a practical sense to teach elements of design and game mechanics. Game studies is also recognizing the importance of expanding its focus beyond the digital. As yet, however, no collected work has explored the many different approaches emerging around the critical challenges that boardgaming represents. In this collection, game theorists analyze boardgame play and player behavior, and explore the complex interactions between the sociality, conflict, competition and cooperation that boardgames foster. Game designers discuss the opportunities boardgame system designs offer for narrative and social play. Cultural theorists discuss boardgames' complex history as both beautiful physical artifacts and special places within cultural experiences of play.
Download or read book Yellow Moon 2 written by Patrick Chiarella and published by Page Publishing Inc. This book was released on 2024-01-04 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cali's secret is she is the true and only keeper of the islands, although she will be getting magic powers now. What kind of magic powers, when will she get it, and how is she going to use it are the questions. People of the islands will be shocked to their very inner souls. The sky will rain hot, fiery lava, and lightning will strike, like grenades. The time has come to get prepared and get ready for the countdown. For the day is coming for Cali's debut to show what she is going to learn and what she has become. It is time for Cali's power to roar loud in the night. However, before this is to come to light, she now knows there is much more for her to find along the way in her journey. She has the power of a little time to do so with her friends. As she finds more clues, she makes new friends with new skills to help her kill the queen. The church will unveil new secrets as well. Cali will have to contend with an unlikely foe as she keeps putting together clues to rid the world of the new evil it might have to face. Cali is unprepared to lose another loved one, but the show must go on. There will be a fight for her life and those who choose to help her. As the wicked keeps getting smarter and the queen pressures Cali to join her, the clock winds down. Nevertheless, she must focus on the prize, the end goal. Cali and friends must keep pushing on because they must, they have to, and it shall be done. Cali must be bold, be strong, and be the one.
Download or read book A Book of Golden Deeds written by Charlotte Mary Yonge and published by ReadHowYouWant.com. This book was released on 1927 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book ACES High written by Stan Pinato and published by FriesenPress. This book was released on 2021-02-05 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this riveting tale of erotic historical fiction, intrigue, action, love, romance, and sex come together to form a plot that will carry readers into the past and keep them guessing from beginning to end. In 1862, Pope Pius IX, attempts to reverse the decline of Christianity in the Middle East. Assembling a round table with three of his archbishops, he labels the secret group, the “Alliance for a Christian Engineered Society” (ACES). Their objective is to eliminate the head priest of the Zoroastrians in India and guide the lost sheep to salvation. The society finds a potential assassin in a jail cell in Mexico, Immanuel Cortez Esteban, otherwise known as the ICE man. ICE trains under Maria Sanchez, and the two fall in love before sailing to Bombay. Can the ACES pull off such an ambitious mission? Will someone betray the team? Do Maria and ICE survive? What is a Parsi? Adults of all ages will love this first installment of what is sure to be an erotic, entertaining, and educational epic trilogy.
Download or read book In the Loop written by Office of Office of English Language Programs and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2015-02-17 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the Loop is divided into three parts: Part 1, "Idioms and Definitions"; Part 2, "Selected Idioms by Category"; and Part 3, "Classroom Activities." The idioms are listed alphabetically in Part 1. Part 2 highlights some of the most commonly used idioms, grouped into categories. Part 3 contains classroom suggestions to help teachers plan appropriate exercises for their students. There is also a complete index at the back of the book listing page numbers for both main entries and cross-references for each idiom.
Download or read book Memoirs of an Old Man of Twenty five written by Lamothe-Langon and published by . This book was released on 1848 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Cincinnati Magazine written by and published by . This book was released on 1978-09 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cincinnati Magazine taps into the DNA of the city, exploring shopping, dining, living, and culture and giving readers a ringside seat on the issues shaping the region.
Download or read book All the Year Round written by and published by . This book was released on 1875 with total page 644 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
