I have never had an office. Usually, my game design collection, the copies of my own games, the hundreds of board games, the tools for board game pedagogy training, and my reference books took over part of our home.

Things became truly unmanageable when I had to bring everything home from my workplace as well—because now, I’m a full-time freelancer.

And that’s how I ended up with an office.

So I’m in the middle of a big reorganization.

What makes me especially happy right now is that all my books about games are finally in one place. I’ve been collecting them for quite some time, but at home, they always ended up buried among my pedagogy books.

Now that my main focus is on games, I love being able to see them all together while I work. Some of them I even feel like revisiting. But honestly, just flipping through them or walking up to the shelf feels great.

Not to mention how much easier it is when I’m looking for something.

I guess I’m a bit old-fashioned—I still reach for books first before turning to Google or ChatGPT.

There are books here on game theory, game psychology, and game pedagogy. But I’ve also collected books on game history, game anthologies, and works focusing on modern board games.

Some of the games that matter most to me even have their own dedicated academic books (e.g., Go, Mancala). And there’s even literature among them.

That last category is particularly fascinating because in these books, games are usually just a tool—a means to talk about something else. Yet, for me, it’s significant that they specifically chose games as that tool.

(Maybe I’ll write about this in more detail one day—after all, Süskind and Zweig are internationally recognized, and I could add some great Hungarian works to the list as well.)

Of course, I still need to check at home. Right now, my library consists of 75 volumes, but I haven’t found everything yet, and I’m sure there are some I’ve forgotten about.

There are also journal articles and collected studies here—some of which I wrote myself. And of course, a few of the books on the shelf are my own works as well.

What’s not included here are my e-books (e.g., a Go strategy book, the Hikaru no Go manga series). But honestly, organizing and handling these books felt so good that I fear for my wallet—I might be expanding the collection very soon.

One specific goal is to add more English-language books, as most of the essential Hungarian works are already here.

Do you have a favorite book about games? Would you recommend something? Drop it in the comments!