Description

Destroy the competition on game night with this seriously funny guide packed with handy strategy, tricks, and tips from the experts

Games are way more fun to play when you win—especially when you crush your friends and family! In How to Win Games and Beat People, Times science editor Tom Whipple explores inside tips, strategy, and advice from a ridiculously overqualified array of experts that will help you dominate the competition when playing a wide range of classic games—from Hangman to Risk to Trivial Pursuit and more.

A mathematician explains how to approach Connect 4; a racecar driver guides you through the corners in slot car racing; a mime shares trade secrets for performing the best Charades; a Scrabble® champion reveals his secret strategies; and a game theorist teaches you to become a real estate magnate, recommending the Monopoly properties to acquire that will bankrupt and embarrass your opponents (sorry, Mom and Dad).

Funny, smart, and endlessly useful, this is a must-read for anyone who takes games too seriously, and the bible for sore losers everywhere.

About the Author

Tom Whipple is the science editor at The Times, and a bad loser. He has spent countless hours phoning experts and distilling their knowledge—normally about somewhat more serious subjects than games. He has been a feature writer for Times2 and contributes features for The Economist Intelligent Life, among other magazines. His wife has stopped playing Scrabble with him because, she claims, he is the sort of person who learns all the two-letter words without knowing their meaning.

Praise For…

“The tome to tuck into your weekend bag if you know you’re going to be Monopolized or Scrabbled.” — Harper's Bazaar

“Gamesmanship . . . is given a witty twist [with] fiendish strategies.” — Saga

“Utterly brilliant.” — The Bookseller, Editor's Choice

Highly recommended . . . provides compelling deduction, illuminating analysis, and fun. — Library Journal