Rating: 
Summary: join the infinite game
Review: This book changed my life. I was enthralled, all the way up to, including, and well beyond the surprise ending. What do the "baton twirling champion of Tennessee" and Pope John Paul II have in common? Both hold titles, metaphorical "trophies" awarded to the winners of finite games. An entirely new way of thinking about the ego and its attachments. A deeply spiritual and humnanistic book.
Rating:
Summary: join the infinite game
Review: This book changed my life. I was enthralled, all the way up to, including, and well beyond the surprise ending. What do the "baton twirling champion of Tennessee" and Pope John Paul II have in common? Both hold titles, metaphorical "trophies" awarded to the winners of finite games. An entirely new way of thinking about the ego and its attachments. A deeply spiritual and humnanistic book.
Rating:
Summary: The best damn book in recent times... a definate classic.
Review: This book either totally changes the way you see the world, or confirms some of the convictions you had about society. This should be required reading for any philosophy course... and the author never beats around the bush with verbose rhetoric! Short, simple, and sweet. Anyone can understand it.
Rating: 
Summary: The bifocals on the everyday lenses of life.
Review: This book is worth its price simply for its elegant articulation of why artists don't fit in. And also for the bit about the difference between dramatic (the suspense) and theatrical (the suspense plus an audience). This quiet book will reassure and energize every quiet person who has not only marched to a different drummer but invited the drummer to join him for a drink and a chat ... This quiet book is actually quite subversive. I have several copies and loan them out frequently to anyone needing liberation from the squirrel cage of closed systems.
Rating:
Summary: A tough little book...
Review: This is a short book. This is a tough book. Some might call it a dangerous book. Oh, you can read through it quickly, flipping from one page to the next -- you've seen all the words before. But then it's just another book you open.But take it slowly, thoughtfully, and this is a book that opens you. It's not easy. It takes time. It takes thought. It's worth the effort.
Rating:
Summary: Really interesting construction, sometimes difficult
Review: This is one of my favorite books because it attempts to construct a new view of the world piece by piece and actually succeeds. This is not to say that the view is right or wrong. It is just rare that someone constructs a view that could be viewed as a "revolt" against our daily experience of structure, but does so in a logical, fun, and non-threatening way. We end up left with the choice to change how we participate in the daily activities or not. There is no requirement to overthrow or denounce your own past actions or anyone else's.
I like Carse's use of a game as the base structure because it makes it easy to say, "Hey, we're just playing a game here...suspend your normal judgment and play by these rules." He then proceeds to detail specific definitions of many terms to set up contrasting ways of looking at the world. He also uses some humorous analogies. It is common when I am in certain situations to remember that people do compete passionately to become the "baton twirling champion of Indiana."
For me, the beginning sections of this book move rather quickly. It sometimes seems as if much is obvious and that this is more of a clever, pun book. But, it definitely gets more difficult a third to a half-way through. So, be prepared to reread some sections. But, the consistency of thought never ends and the building of deeper ideas on top of simpler ones makes the book have a definite flow versus just be some inspirational passages.
This is highly recommended. I have purchased many copies as gifts over the years.
Rating:
Summary: SHOULD BE REQUIRED READING FOR THE PLANET
Review: This is one of the most interesting books I have ever read. I spent the evening looking through my book collection to find my copy of Infinite and Finite Games. The ideas seem simple, but are complex. It is one of those book whose concepts stay in your mind long after you have finished reading the book. I remeber right after I finished the book for the first time, years ago, I went to a bio-diversity. I remember thinking that most of the species on the planet are playing an infinte game. That is they are playing in order to keep playing. We are the only species who plays the game soley to win. That is our tragic flaw. One species playing only to win can destroy life on an entire planet.
I hope we learn the most important thing is to learn to play infinite games--to learn to play in order to keep playing. If we don't learn this simple lesson, life here will, of course, not survive.
| 
