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Players: 2-4
Playing Time: About 20-40 minutes
If you’re sitting at home on a Saturday night and you can’t decide whether you’d rather curl up with a good book or haul out a favorite board game, Booktastic! is the perfect solution. This board game for book lovers combines knowledge of books and authors with the buy, trade, and sell action of games like Monopoly to make it both fun and educational.
Game play is simple. At the beginning of the game, each player gets $220 and a reading list of four books that he or she will have to collect. Players then take turns traveling around the board, visiting bookstores, and collecting books.
At the beginning of each turn, players are asked a book-related question. Casual Readers can choose to answer a simple opinion question that has no right or wrong answer. Each Casual Reader answer earns $25. Avid Readers can choose to answer a multiple-choice question that will earn them $50 for a correct answer. And Collectors can choose to answer the most challenging questions—one with no hints and no multiple-choice options—for $75. After answering his or her question, the player then rolls the dice and continues traveling around the board.
The first player to collect all four of the books on his or her reading list is awarded a $200 bonus. Then all players add up their remaining cash and the value of the books they’ve purchased. The player with the highest value of books and cash is the winner.
Booktastic! is a casual, relaxed game to play. It doesn’t involve a great deal of strategy, and it isn’t a high-energy, super-competitive kind of game. While that may be a problem for people who prefer more action-packed, boisterous games, I like its relaxing style. If you love to read, you most likely won’t have a problem answering (and, often, guessing) the Avid Reader questions—but you’ll still manage to learn something new along the way. For instance, did you know that Ken Follett is married to a Member of Parliament? I didn’t. Do you know how many copies Agatha Christie’s novels have sold worldwide? You will after playing Booktastic! My only complaint is that sometimes the answers are a little too easy to guess. I would have liked a few trick questions thrown in here and there to keep me on my toes.
For those who don’t bring a book with them wherever they go, Booktastic! probably isn’t the ideal game. But if you love wandering through the aisles of your local bookstore, you’ll enjoy this game. Play it with your book group—or with the people in your literature class study group. If you’re looking for something bookish to do outside your favorite reading chair, you’ll want to pick up a copy of Booktastic! It’s the perfect game to play with your lit-loving friends.
Ed. Note: For more information about Booktastic! and the Booktastic! Family Edition, check out BooktasticGame.com.
