One summer, my brother, sisters, and I became obsessed with Monopoly. We played it several times a day and got into massive, board-flipping fights over stolen properties and frustration at losing our money. It got so bad that my mom had to hide the game from us.
This is the power that games have over its players. And there are so many out there that the choices are endless.
Author John-Michael Gariepy has done his homework and compiled a list of the most essential board games in his book, Winning Streak: Tales and Trivia of the 40 Most Popular Board Games. Below is my interview with Garipey. Check it out, and let him know your favorite board games and share your crazy board game stories in the comments!
About the author and book
Author name/pen name: John-Michael Gariepy
Author links (links will open in a new tab)
Book Title: Winning Streak: Tales and Trivia of the 40 Most Popular Board Games
Genres: Humor/Games
Winning Streak book summary
Based on Ranker’s poll of almost 400,000 votes, these games define us. From multiple-award winning masterpieces of the past decade, to indestructible classics still going strong after 5,000 years of play, Winning Streak flips the table on the games you must play before you die.
Book excerpt
#38 – Operation
The Operation commercials always make the game out to be a farcical romp. Leering over this horror show of a body that is our unlucky patient, however, is as tense and nerve wracking as using your amateur skills to perform a real-life appendectomy with a gallery of doctors watching and tens of thousands of dollars on the line. Maybe more so. No amount of fake money is worth the stress of never knowing when the buzzing beehive in your patient’s nose will unleash.
Of all the crazy maneuvers in which your skills as a fake surgeon are requested, I’m most perplexed by the rubber band which you must remove, turn around, then replace in the opposite direction all while touching nothing, ever.
“Well, it’s not good Sam. It turns out your heart is upside down. I’m afraid we need to operate. Now I’m not going to lie to you. This won’t be easy. I need to open up your chest, remove your heart with a pair of tweezers, spin it around, then put it back inside without grazing any other part of your body. If my tweezers so much as touch anything, then your nose will explode. Needless to say if that happens, I won’t collect my standard fee of $200.”
Talking Shop
What famous books can you compare to your own?
I can’t. Any famous book I can compare to mine is better by extension.
If I wanted to be egotistical, I’d say my book belongs on the same bookshelf with Randall Monroe’s excellent What If? and Ryan North’s How to Invent Everything. Not that my book has a lot to do with science, so much as I refuse to do anything the right way, and I also find myself wandering odd corridors of thought in search of what should have been obvious answers.
How long did it take to write your book from the day you got the idea to write it to the day you published it?
This book originally started as an article series on my blog. I wrote the first article in 2015. So it’s been six years from idea to print.
If you don’t make a living exclusively writing, what is your day job? How, in any way, does it relate to your life as a writer?
I’m a security guard, and I work third shift. Every now and then I get caught up thinking about switching jobs, but then I remind myself that I’m currently working my dream job. I get paid to sit and take an occasional walk. And my boss encourages me to write. If I’m writing, that means I’m not sleeping.
I don’t think I can advertise third shift security work enough to anyone who wants to seriously write. I know a lot of people think it’s dangerous to be a security guard, but all of the buildings I guarded were well-fortified with alarm systems. My bosses are more concerned about roof leaks or the boiler melting down. An actual event that I need to respond to might happen once a month. In the meantime, I write without interruption, and I get paid.
How well do you handle criticism, either while writing, editing, or reviews? Do you ever use that criticism to change your story?
I’m unfortunately built for arguing. I play devil’s advocate on the regular and defend the indefensible. So, when someone criticizes my work, I find it really hard not to open my trap and fire back.
Here’s the funny thing, though: I usually accept that person’s criticism and go back and change things in some way. I’ll argue a point for hours, then promptly ignore everything I said and value the opinion of the person who wasn’t me. I’m sorry if I ever put you through this. It’s just what my brain does.
What is your most stereotypical writer trait? Your least stereotypical?
I don’t know if this is a stereotype per se, but my mind is often so lost in my work that I started commuting to and from work in silence. No audiobooks, podcasts, or even music. I figure that’s probably bad for a writer, though. We need to absorb things that aren’t ourselves or we become repetitive. So I’m back on podcasts. But sometimes I have to relisten to a whole episode because I didn’t hear a single word.
As for the stereotype that I’m not, it’s probably the troubled writer who types three words before crumpling up their work and throwing into an ever-flowing waste basket. I don’t procrastinate, and I don’t get writer’s block. Of course, I get stuck sometimes. But then I move on to something else. That being said, at any point and time I can have eight to ten open projects, so that attitude comes with the serious drawback that I can’t possibly finish everything I start.
“What If” Scenarios
You’re offered a contract to rewrite your book in another genre. Which genre do you choose and why?
I talk movies in my Popcorn Roulette videos, so you’d think that writing about the 40 most popular movies of all time would make sense. But finding something new to say about Citizen Kane is rough.
I’d rather flip it and do the 40 worst movies according to Rotten Tomatoes. I’m sure I could write a book about Speed 2 alone. Do you know that one? It’s about a cruise ship that remains at a certain speed at all times… in open water. The full name of the movie is Speed 2: Cruise Control. I don’t even need to write any jokes. The movie did my work for me.
Your book becomes a best seller. What do you do next?
I presume that I’ve been kidnapped by the Batman villain, the Mad Hatter, and that I’m comatose in a perfect dream scenario. Clearly, I need to go to the vast library in my mansion, pull out a book and attempt to read it.
Since I’m dreaming, and you can’t read when you dream, all the words will drip off the page instead. Having proven I’m right, I need to find a belfry, not give in to the police who insist I’m delusional, and jump over the edge. I’d then wake up on a slab, ripping straps off of myself while Dr. Jervis Tetch screams, “It’s impossible! No one has ever been able to escape my dream machine!”
Would you rather own your own bookstore or your own publishing house, and what would you sell or publish?
Oh no. I used to own a game store back at the turn of the millennium, and I learned the hard way back then that I’m a creator, not a businessman. If I found myself in charge of a bookstore or a publishing house, the first thing I would do is sell it. We won’t have me ruining a perfectly good business, thank you very much.
You have the means to hire a full time assistant to help you with your writing. What tasks do you give them to do?
This thing I’m doing right now, mostly. Writers shouldn’t be marketers. There’s nothing nobody can do about it, though. The Internet has been very good to independent writers, who can get the word out about their book to an unprecedented number of readers. But they also need social media presence. That wasn’t part of the deal when I started writing in the 90s… but I’m also pretty sure I’m the kind of writer who would forever be ignored by agents and anthologies. So I guess there’s no use complaining about it.
You have final say over who reads the audio book version of your story. Who do you choose?
Give me a year, and I’m sure I’ll read it myself. But I’d love to hear Owen Wilson do it, just so I can hear him say ‘wow’ after every fact he didn’t know.
Just for Fun
Your favorite childhood book or story.
The Endless Quest series of books, which was Dungeons & Dragon’s take on the Choose Your Own Adventure series. Rose Estes took the basic formula of “What do you do?” added plot, and gave the protagonist personality. Revenge of the Rainbow Dragons, Circus of Fear, and Hero of Washington Square are all an inextricable part of me.
An item from your past that you’d like to have back.
World enough and time. You can have everything else. They’re just things, after all.
One bucket list item you’ve completed and one that’s still on your list.
I visited every Smithsonian that was open in DC last year. But to squeeze them all in, I had to skip the Spy Museum, the National Geographic Museum, and any walking tour or film festival… and I still have two Smithsonians left to visit in NYC.
I like museums. They’re like books you can walk around inside. But also like books, there are way more than you’ll ever be able to read.
Favorite Halloween costume ever.
I once dressed up as Chester A. Arthur by shaving my beard into mutton chops and wearing layers and layers of bathrobes that looked like layers and layers of smoking jackets. I like President Arthur. The man was backed by Boss Tweed and Tammany Hall as a vice presidential stooge. But when President Garfield was shot by a madman, he broke down and cried like a baby. He was never supposed to be an important man. He floated through politics by facilitating favors. And, very suddenly, he became the most important person in the Americas.
Boss Tweed must have been delighted, then immediately incensed as Arthur came crashing down on the very establishment that put him in power. Outside of that, he mostly let Garfield’s policies flourish, even though he openly disagreed with them. He wasn’t a great man, but he did a good job holding on to the office until some other great man could be elected. But unfortunately he had to go and sign the Chinese Exclusion Act that prevent Chinese people from immigrating to the United States. What a way to ruin an otherwise noble term of office with an offensive racist decision.
When time travel is achieved, do you go forward or backward?
I just want to go to the future to steal a self-driving car. Then I’d have it drive around randomly while I read in the back seat. Occasionally, I’d wake up and we’d be in some weird new place to explore. I’m not sure why you’d need a home anymore if you had a self-driving car. I’m sure the housing market will collapse, and everyone will live in their cars, popping out only to take the occasional shower at the car wash.
Pin it!
We are big game players on my family, from Clue to Catan to newer, less known games like Ashes and Rivals, so I love the sounds of the book! I am also a big lover of trivia and short, fun stories so Winning Streak is a perfect story for me.
Thanks for sharing!