Last week, we had two new bookish games arrive that Lizzy and I were very excited to try. By complete chance, we each ended up buying a different one, which worked out perfectly because now we get to trade!
I am absolutely obsessed with all the bookish games coming out at the moment, so I immediately got my hands on Kingdom of Threads: My Book Nook, while Lizzy picked up A Place for All My Books which, to be honest, feels incredibly fitting for Lizzy 😂
Read on to find out what we both thought of our new games and decide which one you’d be most excited to play... or just do what we did and treat yourself to both!
Lizzy's Review for A Place For All My Books
Usually I buy board games with the optimistic thought I'll play them straight away then they sit abandoned on my shelves for months before I finally get to them. With this boardgame I could not WAIT to get home and give it a try with my husband, and despite the fact that it was daylight savings and we should have gone to bed early, I ended up staying up far too late having far too much fun arranging tidy wooden 'books'.
The game play is complex enough to give the game a lot of variety and to make me want to play it again and see how differently it ends up, but simple enough that we didn't need to spend a huge amount of time double checking rules or watching videos. One quick read through of the booklet and we were off (we did make one mistake which gave us a couple of extra turns each but that's our fault for not paying attention to the obvious information).
A Place for all my Books is a bit like a puzzle game, where you have various personal projects and bigger goals to achieve in how you arrange various coloured books in amongst your different rooms of your house. I love the social battery element where you need to take actions to charge up before leaving to visit town and acquire more books, it's such a great element thematically but also in the game play itself. The artwork is gorgeous, the actions all make sense in my brain, and I can't wait to play again. There's also a solo mode that looks really fun which I'll test out soon.
Amelia's Review of My Book Nook
I knew as soon as this game arrived that I was adding it to our collection at home. It was a need, not a want and I am so glad I got it. I loved how thoughtful and cosy this game feels. You get to build your own little library (the dream), filling your shelves with books and decorations that all contribute to your final score. And then the person with the prettiest book nook wins (based on ornaments and matching books to shelves).
There’s something incredibly satisfying about watching your book nook slowly come together as you play. You’re not just trying to score as many points as possible, you’re thinking about where everything should go and how you can make the most of the space you have. It has enough strategy to keep you thinking, without losing that relaxing, cosy feeling that made me want to play it in the first place.
And, as someone who loves both books and word games, this theme will always win me over. There’s something very fun about essentially getting to build and organise your dream library while playing a word game.
I also love that you can play this one solo. It’s the perfect game to pull out when you’re in the mood for something cosy and, if no one else wants to play, you can happily play it by yourself! Very cute, very bookish, and very much my kind of game.
And I Need Another Bookish Game...
After these two games, you’d think my bookish board game obsession might be satisfied for a little while but it definitely is not!
I already have my eye on Bookshelf, which is coming soon and looks ridiculously cute. It’s a cooperative game all about stacking books onto a precarious bookshelf, while somehow also making room for a cat. Books, board games and a cat? Plus, it comes in a handy little tin so it will quicky jump to the top of my camping board games!
