Ex Libris, the game of first lines and last words is a board-less game of literary bluff in the dictionary game genre. First published in 1991 by the English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 board game company, Oxford Games Ltd

Oxford Games

- History :Founded by Leslie Scott , and the graphic designer, Sara Finch.Finch & Scott co-designed Swipe and The Great Western Railway Game in 1985, and then went on to develop and design almost forty games together...

, Ex Libris was devised and compiled by Leslie Scott

Leslie Scott

Leslie Scott may refer to:*Leslie Scott , creator of the game "Jenga"* Leslie Scott , Conservative MP 1910–1929, Solicitor-General 1922* Leslie M. Scott, Oregon historian and politician...

 (the creator of Jenga

Jenga

Jenga is a game of physical and mental skill created by Leslie Scott, and currently marketed by Parker Brothers, a division of Hasbro. During the game, players take turns to remove a block from a tower and balance it on top, creating a taller and increasingly unstable structure as the game...

), and designed by Sara Finch. The game involves having to write fake, but plausible, opening (or closing) sentences of genuine books in an attempt to fool fellow players into believing your words are the authentic first (or last) lines of a given book.

Contents and Rules of play

The game comprises one hundred cards, each of which provides (on the one side)the title, author and plot summary of a published book or short story; and on the flip side, the genuine first and last sentences of that book.
At the start of each round, a different player takes on the role of reader and reads aloud the title, author and plot summary. The other players are then required to write plausible first or last sentences for the book, handing their efforts over to the reader, who has meanwhile copied the correct line onto a similar piece of paper, which he/she shuffles amongst the 'fake' scripts. The reader then reads aloud all the sentences, taking care to disguise the genuine, and each player then votes for which line he or she considers is the genuine first or last sentence.

Scoring

A player receives one point for each vote given his or her fake line.
A player receives one point if he/she votes for the book's authentic first or last line.
The reader wins one point if no one identifies the genuine line.

Comments

Currently endorsed by Oxford University's Bodleian Library

Bodleian Library

The Bodleian Library , the main research library of the University of Oxford, is one of the oldest libraries in Europe, and in Britain is second in size only to the British Library...

 and the British Library

British Library

The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...

 (London), which both receive a royalty for each game sold, Ex Libris has been described by Katy Steinmetz in TIME

Time

Time is a part of the measuring system used to sequence events, to compare the durations of events and the intervals between them, and to quantify rates of change such as the motions of objects....

 as 'fantastically tricky'; by Andy Mayes as 'recommended for anyone who likes an intelligent laugh' , and by Julie Myerson in the Observer

Observer

Observer may refer to person who is observing. More specialised meanings follow.-Computer science and information theory:*In information theory, any system which receives information from an object....

as 'a boring sounding, but in fact extremely entertaining (party) game'.