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THE MONOPOLY BOOK by Maxine Brady

THE MONOPOLY BOOK

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Pub Date: Nov. 25th, 1974
Publisher: McKay

In 1971 when the Atlantic City Commission met to consider changing the names of Baltic and Mediterranean Avenues, the world arose in protest; such is the reach of the game invented by Charles Darrow in 1930. Here is the first book to examine its strategy and tactics, and it will be a boon to perennial losers -- those who seem to lack the intuitive sadism to construct annihilating hotels yet retain a huge supply of ready cash. Consider, writes Brady, that certain properties are landed on more frequently than others (remember chance cards, jail); evaluate investment-return ratios (her charts proliferate); keep in mind differences in middle game and end game property distributions; and exploit that elusive but often determinative power of bargaining, bluffing, and psyching. Yet much of this book is wasted space: most is devoted to explicating the rules. Admittedly the published rules are incomplete and ambiguous in parts, but most players have already found this out and have established house rules to clarify or enliven (buildings erected evenly on a monoploy; trading only on your turn; $500 for ""Free Parking""). This book cannot be endorsed without qualification ('Go to your bookstore. Go directly to your bookstore. Do not pass go. Do not collect. . .""). But you will not go bankrupt, and considering that Brady now has a monopoly on the subject, addicts will find it worth reading.