No comments about Simon and Schuster Crossword Puzzle Book #256: The Original Crossword Puzzle Publisher (Simon & Schuster Crossword Puzzle Books).

2 comments about Twisted Crosswords (Mensa).

1. If you are tired of conventional crosswords and want to try something a bit different, Henry Hook's "Twisted Crosswords" might be just what you are looking for. You may have seen puzzles with some of these unusual formats in the pages of Games Magazine, and now you can tackle a complete book of them. The collection contains a generous variety of different puzzle types, each with its unique word placement rules and challenges. Many of them have unconventional, visually pleasing grids that include honeycombs, triangles, weaves, three dimensional cubes, and spirals. Words might be entered diagonally, in a circle, snaking through the grid, or wrapping around the edges. In some puzzles, two or more letters may be entered in every square. In others, there are identical grids with multiple clue sets, and it is up to you to determine which grid the words go into. Words weave, overlap, and intersect with each other in novel ways. Give these puzzles a try!

   Eileen Rieback




2. If you've been a reader of Games Magazine, you'll recognize the format of many of these crosswords. Instead of marching left to right and top to bottom as a normal crossword does, you'll find all sorts of variations: answers arranged in circles, multiple letters in a box and some where you don't even know where to start the answer.
   
   The puzzles themselves are well done, although the introduction and explanation for some of the puzzles leaves a little room for improvement. Once you see how a particular kind of puzzle is intended to be filled in it's fairly straightforward, but with some of them the instructions are quite vague and almost seem to assume you already know how to do the puzzle and the instructions are simply pro-forma.
   
   If you're intrigued by unusual word puzzles, this book is definitely for you. Due to the way that the puzzles are organized, although the clues are not always too difficult, not knowing a few of them can make a puzzle very tricky to solve. These are definitely not for someone who gets easily frustrated.

No comments about Simon and Schuster Crossword Puzzle Book #244: The Original Crossword Puzzle Publisher (Simon & Schuster Crossword Puzzle Book).

No comments about The New York Times Weekend Away Crossword Puzzle Omnibus: 200 Fun Puzzles (New York Times Crossword Puzzles Omnibus).

1 comments about Droids: Cynabar's Fantastic Technology (Star Wars RPG).

1. This is great for the beginner droid in the popular RPG Star wars. It gives you the degree of the droid, its equiptment, and all else needed to get a character.

1 comments about Random House Vacation Crosswords, Volume 1 (Vacation).

1. it was the greatest book in the world. the crossword puzzles were great and it kept me busy for a very long time. more of these books should come out. then i would never be bored again.

No comments about Simon & Schuster Mega Crossword Puzzle Book #4.

3 comments about Zen And The Art Of Crossword Puzzles: A Journey Down And Across.

1. Nikki Katz's Zen and the Art of Crossword Puzzles is part of a series of Zen-related hobby books published by Adams Media (Zen and the Art of Knitting, etc.). In her contribution to the series Katz provides thumbnail histories of both crossword puzzles (first published in 1913) and Zen philosophy (considerably older), and she frequently points to intersections between the two--how Zen principals can be used to make one's crossword experiences more pleasant, how solving crosswords can be experienced as a kind of "working meditation." But Katz's book is hardly all Zen all the time. She discusses a great number of topics in the book's ten chapters: crossword solving rituals and methodologies, hints for solving puzzles, an explanation of British cryptic crosswords (for which I am especially grateful), the health benefits of puzzle solving, the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, crossword-related poetry and paintings and fiction (specifically, the Nero Blanc series of crossword mysteries). Some of what Katz has to say will be too lightweight for hard-core cruciverbalists, but there should be something new in the book for just about everyone.
   
   Katz conducted a great many interviews while working on the book, which she punctuates with personal anecdotes gleaned from her interview subjects. As it happens, I am among those whom Katz contacted: she writes in chapter eight about my habit of blogging the New York Times Sunday crossword every week at the-deblog.com.
   
   Katz ends each chapter with a tip for improving--or at least for altering--one's crossword experiences: in the last chapter, for example, she suggests that readers try solving a crossword online if they haven't before as a means of broadening their crossword experiences; elsewhere she suggests that readers try creating their own crossword-related poetry. An original puzzle follows each chapter, and Katz lists a number of crossword resources in a handy appendix--online crossword sites and dictionaries, anagramming tools, construction software, etc.
   
   Debra Hamel -- author of Trying Neaira: The True Story of a Courtesan's Scandalous Life in ancient Greece (Yale University Press, 2003)



2. This is a non-book. The wheel is reinvented on every page. There are very few puzzles and those are not even interesting. Pick up a crossword book at your supermarket rather than waste your money on this thing.



3. I found this work so poor that I have consigned it to the recycling bin, rather than taking up space on my bookshelf! It reads as though the author had been given some sort of 'assignment' to connect Zen with Crossword Puzzles, both of which she has knowledge of. Not written with any degree of 'passion'! I'd suggest separate books on each subject would be a better buy: any of Alan Watts's books on Zen or Tao, and "Wordplay" DVD with its companion book. All available from Amazon.

3 comments about Star Trek Crosswords Book 1.

1. Although crossword puzzle books aren't my normal fare, being a fan of all things Star Trek and being a collector of Star Trek treasures automatically put this on the list of things to purchase.

   This book of Star Trek crossword puzzles will definitely entertain you to no end trying to come up with the trivia that is included in the fifty crossword puzzles contained in this, the first of what will most likely be many Star Trek Crossword books. Fear not too much though, for if you do run into a particular question that is too much of a stumper, the answer sheet to all fifty puzzles is in the back. For the "devout" trekker, if they cannot come up with the answer off the top of their head, they can and will most likely have their Star Trek "Companions" and "Encyclopedias" nearby.

   High praise to John M. Samson, Sam Bellotto Jr. and Raymond Hamel for bringing this, the first of many, Star Trek Crossword puzzle books to the Star Trek genre. {ssintrepid}




2. Being a major Star Trek fan for many years, I was really looking forward to this crossword puzzle book. And, in most ways, it is enjoyable to work these puzzles. But, there is Star Trek information in these puzzles that are wrong, especially certain spellings. I have checked multiple entries against Star Trek reference material that I have and from the official Star Trek web-site, and sometimes these puzzle clues/answers are wrong. Also, as mentioned by someone else, these puzzles are very challenging. If you don't have some detailed ST reference material, you will probably be pretty frustrated. Some of the answers to the entries are two or more words, but the author doesn't tell you that. And some of the non-Star Trek questions are very, very obscure. But, I've learned alot! I'm just not sure that I'll buy any more of this author's crossword books.



3. This book contains some of the truest tests for Star Trek trivia buffs. With questions from all four-television series and the movies and including some from Earth, these crossword puzzles will challenge you. Some of the questions that are not from Star Trek are:
   
   *) Sheep's cry
   *) Water plant
   *) Carpet style
   *) Island off Venezuela
   *) Cream-filled cookie
   
   I am generally not a fan of crossword puzzles, so my advantage here was my knowledge of Star Trek. In general, I could answer about 1/3 of the questions without consulting any reference, which means that they are of moderate difficulty. To know the answers to some of the questions, you would have to be a complete encyclopedic reference to all things Star Trek.

No comments about Los Angeles Times Crosswords 14: 72 Puzzles from the Daily Paper (Los Angeles Times Crosswords).