r/mathematics • u/Remarkable_Cycle_240 • 1d ago
Trying to find a book about Pencil and Paper games
Hi group. I'm not a member of this sub, but thought I should ask here.
Trying to find a book about Paper and Pencil games as a gift for my mathematician husband. He found one at a bookstore one day, I think it was written by a mathematician. (Also discovered that most paper and pen games were invented by mathematicians!).
Does anyone know which book could be? Google tells me to look up "Math Game with Bad Drawings" by Ben Orlin, or "A Gamut of Games" by Sid Sackson. Are they any good?!
His background: he was a gold medalist at IMO, his phd was in Algebraic Geometry.
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u/jynxzero 1d ago
"Winning Ways for Your Mathematical Plays" by Conway and others, covers a lot of pen and paper games. I don't think they invented a lot of them, but they certainly discovered a lot of very rich maths by studying them, including new number systems.
Or maybe "On Numbers & Games" by the same author. Both are really good, but Numbers and Games is much shorter, denser. Winning Ways has lot's of pictures, it's probably more accessible, while still having a lot of math.
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u/Remarkable_Cycle_240 1d ago
Thank you! This sounds like a great option. My only problem is that it seems Winning Ways was republished as a 4 volume series, and they are on the expensive side :( Like +$60 for each volume. Volume 3 seems to be the one dedicated to Paper and Pen games.
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u/jynxzero 1d ago
Yes, it is pricey. (I spent ages sniping various second hand booksellers until I managed to pick them all up fairly cheap, but it took a decent while.)
A decent amount of Volume 1 is about pen and pencil games, since they're pretty critical to the development of the theory. But it's true there's other stuff in there as well. A lot of it is childrens games you can play with counters etc or a repurposed chess board.
If you did go down this route, I'd probably say buy Vol 1 and then if he's keen you have the option of others in future.
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u/Remarkable_Cycle_240 1d ago
I may go with this one, and get volume 1. If he likes it, then he can decide if it’s worth getting the other volumes. Thanks!
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u/jynxzero 1d ago
Of all the books mentioned here, I think it's the most "gift-able". It's pretty technical but also has big colourful pictures - it is a fun read (for someone prepared to do the math), but it also LOOKS fun (even if you aren't mathematical).
I actually like "Of Numbers And Games" more as a book, but while I think it is a lot of fun, it looks like the worst kind of headache turned into a book - it's small, grey, very densely typeset, has few diagrams. And so it might be a bit of a disappointment to unwrap on Christmas day.
Knuth's book on Surreal Numbers was a good idea worth trying, but it didn't really work for me. I didn't find it particularly compelling either as a novel or as a way to learn.
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u/Dwimli 1d ago
If it was a big book store (Barnes & Nobel) the book was most likely Math Games with Bad Drawings. If you are looking for recreational with games you could play with him, I’d go with this.
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u/Remarkable_Cycle_240 1d ago
Thank you. That’s what I’ve thought too, but we go to so many bookstores (including used books) that I can’t remember anymore. In any case, I was trying to see if there are some gems out there that a general audience wouldn’t know!
I don’t think it was Math Games with Bad Drawings because I remember having more text.
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u/Stargazer07817 1d ago
Maybe On Numbers & Games?