The (Almost) Lost Joy of Board Games

On a recent episode of The Vampire Diaries, I was somewhat surprised to see several of the characters playing Pictionary because you don't hear much about people playing board or similar type games anymore. When people get together now, they're more likely to play Guitar Hero than Monopoly or Scattergories. But I love board games and it's a bit sad I don't get to play them very often. So here's an ode to some of my favorites.

1. Monopoly -- This is the first board game I can remember playing, probably because of how much my family and I played it during the horrible winter of 1977-78. It snowed and snowed and snowed that winter. We were out of school almost the entire month of January. So we tried our best to stay warm and played a ton of Monopoly. My younger sister, who was only 3 at the time, would just play with the fake money. For a long time after that winter, I was sick to death of the game. But years later, I started playing again and even have my own National Parks Monopoly game.

2. Trivial Pursuit -- I'll admit it. I was a geeky kid in school. I loved learning, still do. And I've always loved trivia games. I was on my school's academic (quiz bowl) team, so this game is a classic for me. There have been many different versions, but I still have the original, complete with falling-apart box.

3. Clue -- Col Mustard in the library with the candlestick. I've always liked mysteries, so this game was fun. I loved trying to figure out the answers before everyone else.

4. Scattergories -- You have to think fast in this one, trying to match categories with words that start with the same letter.

5. Scrabble -- I'm not the best at this game, often losing to my husband when we play the occasional game, but I still like how it stretches my brain. I love word games.

6. Dominoes -- I never played Dominoes until I met my husband. His family played, and so I learned from them. Another funny memory I have regarding Dominoes is when my husband and I lived in married housing on our university campus while he was in grad school. Our upstairs neighbors were some guys from Barbados, where the game is evidently very popular. They would host some very loud, crazy games of Dominoes up there.

7. Pictionary -- An artist, I am not. But this drawing game has provided a lot of laughs through the years. One year, my RWA chapter even created a version with romance book titles and played it at our chapter retreat. Hilarity ensued.

8. Uno -- Haven't played this card game in years, but I remember liking it when I was young.

9. Yahtzee -- I haven't played this dice game in years either, but it was popular when I was a kid.

10. One of the more recent faves is Perquaky, a word game where you roll dice and try to make up as many words as you can with different amounts of letters in a short amount of time. My friend and fellow author Annie Solomon introduced me to this one, at another chapter retreat. I liked it so much I bought my own game and force my hubby to play it every once in awhile. :)

As the days get shorter and colder, it's a great time to drag out those old board games and rediscover the fun of playing them.

What about you -- are you a fan of board/classic games? If so, what are your favorites? Any special memories attached to certain games or playing board games in general?