Over nine rounds, players visit locations and gather books to complete objectives and earn Victory Points. The player with the most Victory Points wins.
The organizational puzzles are easy to accomplish, with the challenge being how many of them you can accomplish all at once to optimize each "admire" action.
A Place for All My Books includes a solo mode in which you must beat the game's rival: Penelope Eveready, an untiring extrovert who seems to be grabbing all the books you had wanted.