Ex Libris (1991)

The game of first lines and last words.

Ex Libris has been a firm favourite with book lovers, and readers and writers, since Oxford Games first devised and published the game in 1991.

Ex Libris is a subtle, yet highly entertaining game of bluff that will challenge your literary acumen and test your writing skills as you attempt to compose fake, but plausible, first or last lines for genuine English novels.

One hundred authors representing widely different writing styles are featured in Ex Libris – from Charles Dickens to Harold Robbins, from Jane Austen to Barbara Cartland.

At the start of a round one player, taking a turn as the reader, picks a card and reads it out loud. The other players then have each to write a plausible opening or closing sentence to the work in an attempt to bluff fellow players into believing his or her ‘script’ to be the genuine one. These are all handed in to the reader, who has meanwhile written down the genuine sentence (given on the back of the card). The genuine and fake are shuffled together, and then each sentence is read out. Each player votes for the sentence he/she believes is the real one. Players win a point for each vote cast for his or her entry (while further points are won if you manage to identify the genuine sentence). The reader receives a point if no one manages to identify the authentic sentence.

Players try to both:

• guess the correct 1st or last line to a novel
• write a fake 1st or last line to a novel and trick other players into thinking it is real

Points are scored for making correct guesses and for tricking other players. The actual 1st/last lines for novels such as the following are included:

• Moby Dick
• Pride and Prejudice
• Jude the Obscure
• Zuleika Dobson
• The Spy Who Loved Me
• The House at Pooh Corner

• Liebrary