American Bookshop is a trick-taking game in which players must follow suit when possible, there is no trump, and the highest card of the lead suit wins the trick. However, if the sum of the cards played to a trick exceeds a certain value — 14-17, depending on the player count — the trick ends immediately, and whoever played the last card claims the trick. As such, players may not have equal hand sizes. A round ends when one player is out of cards; the remaining players then simultaneously choose and reveal which cards still in hand they want to add to their collection. Each card a player takes is worth -1 point, but if a player has collected more cards of a suit than each other player, they instead earn +1 point per card in this suit. After as many rounds as the number of players, whoever has the most points wins.