Cheers! The Bible of drinking games will have you drinking beers!
Does anyone else find it interesting that some drinking games have the most complicated and unstable rules out of any other competitive event? There must be 20,000 variations of Kings and Beer Pong.
Enter Alex Bash’s “The Imbible: Drinking Games for Times You’ll Never Remember with Friends You’ll Never Forget.” It’s a must-have for any fraternity house bathroom.
Bash takes painstaking effort to list virtually every drinking game imaginable to finally devise a manuscript – that is, as the title suggests, the Bible – of drinking games. With this book and enough beer, no one in sight needs to be bored and/or sober. Each game includes common household items, mainly cards, coins and dice. Flipping the book open to any random page can start an entire night of drunken fun.
The Imbible is divided into six sections. The classics are first: beer pong, flip cup – the ones everyone already knows. What follows includes sections dedicated to card games, dice games, coin games, movie games and for everything else alcohol-related but unfit for a category – miscellaneous games.
Such a collection of games is certainly impressive.
“I picked up most of them throughout my college career, from parties, friends, bars, trips, etc.,” Bash said in an e-mail interview. “In addition, I created many of the variations for games, usually when playing with friends and desiring a new twist.”
New twists indeed. The “Circle of Betterness,” “Circle of Wonderfulness” and “Circle of Extreme Happy Greatness,” each include their own rules. All of which are nearly identical, give or take ten or twelve cans of beer.
Take note that this is not only a how-to guide for binge drinkers in search of a cheap thrill. The Imbible is a rather decent read even without playing the games. In fact, after reading the entire book, it wouldn’t be surprising to learn that the reader hasn’t remembered a single one of them. Bash has crafted a creative outlook to one of his favorite past times. He occasionally rambles incoherent rants that parallel those of a drunk, yet are perfectly acceptable for a book such as this. For readers in search of inspiration and advice to a better life, look elsewhere. The Imbible is a vulgar document composed of what many people would consider to be bad ideas from front to back.
Obviously a book all about drinking isn’t too entertaining without some pokes and jabs for humor’s sake. Bash tries incredibly hard to be funny. He often succeeds and sounds like a fairly witty individual who has his priorities straight and just likes to get drunk all the time. Other times, Bash is simply digging for a laugh, desperate enough to make the same joke he already wrote three times but probably forgot about. It’s an honest mistake.
This doesn’t necessarily need to be read the entire way through considering its tendency to be quite redundant. Skipping to the section on movie games or miscellaneous games might be advised for someone getting caught up in the confusing nature surrounding variations of Kings or Quarters.
Bash said he is also working on another book titled “The Morning After.” According to Bash, it will be roughly 90% editorial with sections such as Famous Moments in Alcohol, The Art of Pre-Gaming, 101 Ways to Apologize for What You Did While Drunk, Morning After Acronyms and many more.
Contact all correspondent Garrison Ebie at [email protected].