2 comments about Will Shortz Presents Let's Play Sudoku: Middle of the Road (Will Shortz Presents...).

1. This is a very error-free collection that really increased my skills at Sudoku. Difficult, but not impossible. I would now trust any sudoku collection in the "Will Shortz" catalogue.



2. I love Will Shortz sudoku puzzles. I bought this book in hopes that it wouldn't be too easy or too difficult. In general, most of the book's puzzles are of moderate difficulty, however, I have found that there are quite a few puzzles that are pretty hard and even demanding. Every now and then I find a really easy one or two. In general - a good buy.

2 comments about The Very Best of Jumble Brainbusters: More Than 500 Brain Bending Puzzles.

1. My mother is homebound and I wanted to get her something that would keep her mind active. She always loved the Jumbles in the newspaper but I couldn't find a bok of them in any local stores. I had a choice of several onAmazon.



2. Book is full of fun but much larger than expected about the size of a phone book and therefore difficult to carry around.

No comments about Fun with Hand Shadows (Dover Game and Puzzle Activity Books).

3 comments about Tri-doku (Sudoku).

1. These puzzles are great! If you enjoy Sudoku but are bored with the same old thing, these puzzles use the same kind of logic but with a new twist. Beware: they will keep you up at night! I can't wait for more books by this author!



2. Wow, I've done about 20 puzzles so far and enjoy the new challenge. I will be done with this book quickly because I can't put it down. I hope the author plans to make more because I'll have withdraw symptoms. If you like Sudoku, you'll love this one too!!!



3. I am a longtime Sudoku fan, despite my deeply held belief that I am not pronouncing it correctly. I have to admit that, although the puzzles are fun and challenging, they do tend to get somewhat repetitive for me. Maybe I haven't studied enough of the advanced techniques or perhaps I'm simply unable to appreciate the subtleties that present themselves in the various puzzles.
   
   At any rate, stumbling across this Tri-doku book in a local B&N was a pleasant surprise. I thumbed through the book and was curious enough about how the puzzles worked to buy a copy. Once I brought the book home I sat at the kitchen table trying to familiarize myself with all the rules, of which there are a fair amount. Once I was immersed enough in the instructions I dove into my first puzzle with a #2 pencil (more on that later). After many mistakes and frustrations I finally got the hang of it and I am now officially hooked.
   
   The puzzles offer (to me anyways) so many more twists and "a-ha moments" than traditional Sudoku and are much more addictive. Of course your mileage may vary. Given that there are about 10,000x more Sudoku titles than Tri-doku (I think this book is the sole one, in fact) maybe it appeals to a much smaller type of puzzle solver.
   
   At any rate, if you are looking for a unique twist on this phenomenon you should go over to the author's site (http://www.tridoku.com) to read the rules and give some of the puzzles a test spin. If you are at all like me you'll probably be purchasing the book soon after.
   
   Now. The pencil thing. I found that, unlike most other puzzles you might work on, a pencil -- for this book anyway -- is a poor choice. This is more of a statement about the type of paper the puzzles are printed on than the puzzles themselves. I found that a black ball-point pen worked best and -- if you're careful -- was adequate even with the occasional goof. Using a pencil results in dull, very light numbers that don't erase off the page very well. I suppose I could take a star off my rating for this but the puzzles are just too damn cool.

1 comments about Crime and Puzzlement 3: 24 Solve Them Yourself Picture Mysteries.

1. Picking up from where he strayed, Lawrence Treat uses clever drawings and witty prose to befuddle the amateur sleuth in this third in his series. His is an excellent series of books that can be adapted for detectives of many ages-- I know because I use them with my students.

   Some of the puzzles require good observation, others require sharp wits, and all put a lethally grand combination of pictures and storylines that are fun to read and solve. The questions at the end of each story point sleuths in the right direction.

4 comments about The Original Sudoku Book 2.

1. The puzzles are top notch and you get 320 for your money, a very good deal. As the book is so thick, the page size is a bit small, making the left hand puzzles at the beginning of the book (and vice versa for the right hand pages at the back of the book) difficult to keep flat. The paper is tough enough to withstand multiple erasings and there is only minimal bleed through from puzzles on reverse page faces. It is up to you to decide whether or not these "hand-made" puzzles are better than computer generated. I have never played a computer generated puzzle, so I can't comment.



2. I only give this a 1 because I can't choose a zero.
   
   Whomever wrote the puzzles for this book obviously doesn't know the rules of sudoku:
   
   No number can appear twice within a column, row, or 9-box sub-section (nor located in the same box within the 9-box sub-section). I'm a sudoku fanatic, so I'm very versed in the rules. When I sat down and started working the puzzles, I found myself running up against instances on every puzzle where the same number would have to appear in the upper left hand box of each sub-section twice within the same puzzle (which is a BIG no-no). When this happened 10 times in a row, I went back to the answer page and discovered all of the puzzles had this defect.
   
   DO NOT PURCHASE THIS BOOK!!



3. This is a nice little book. The small size means you can carry it easily with you for a diversion while awaiting a bus, an appointment or friends. It's a little difficult to physically manage because of this fact, however, and the squares are small, so it's difficult if you like to write in the possible solutions for the individual squares as I do. The puzzles are graded into "easy," "medium," "hard," and "very hard," and these assessments are accurate. You can solve any of them with the usual methods you employ for them but will find that the greater the level of difficulty the greater amount of time it'll take to solve them. I find that I tend to select a puzzle level based on how I'm feeling rather than strictly on what level I think I can do. If I'm not feeling like a major challenge, I tend to do easy puzzles. It gives me a sense of satisfaction without frustrating me when I may already be stressed out enough. I choose more challenging puzzles when I'm feeling more up to the demands, but then for me the point of doing these puzzles is to enjoy the experience, not to "prove" anything to anyone.



4. There's something about human generated sudoku puzzles that inspire you to continue trying to solve them long after you would have given up on a computer generated puzzle. My house is falling down around me, my wife is threatening divorce, and my health is failing....but I am having so much fun working these sudoku puzzles!
   The is the best sudoku puzzle series!!

5 comments about The Book of Sudoku: The Hot New Puzzle Craze (Book of Sudoku).

1. Sudoku really is addictive. My first real experience with sudoku (outside of US Weekly or some other magazine that was on the coffee table at my sister's house) was this book. I struggled a little bit at first even on the easy ones, but once I figured out the basics (and help from the tutorial examples in the introduction) I was at home with this book.
   
   Many sudoku books from my experience lack a solid introduction on the basics of how to solve. There is even some guidelines and suggestions for how to solve the more complicated ones, although I have yet to necessarily need that knowledge. I think this truly is the shining point of this book, next to having 132 puzzles that clock in at various difficulty levels.
   
   Another bonus is the fact that there are blank grids at the end in case you screw up too bad or simply want to reproduce them with a photocopier. This is another feature that is not always included in other books.
   
   Finally, a suggestion for other solvers out there that are having troubles with the quality of paper that these puzzles are printed on (this is a trick I learned when I was doing those grid-box logic puzzles from my childhood): put scotch-tape over the grid and then use a pencil. The tape is incredibly easy to erase from and adds some more durability to the book. This is also simple to do and would only require seven to eight strips of tape for each grid (I think. I typically do the puzzles in pen anyway and it turns out looking like a warzone on the grid... I rarely have pencils just sitting around).
   
   Finally, if you like this product, I recommend "The Sudoku Code" by Francis Heaney and Frank Longo. It integrates every puzzle into this code that runs throughout all 200 puzzles in that collection.



2. I got interested in Sudoku puzzles through the newspaper, and I felt I had the grasp of it and could solve them fairly quickly when I received this book as a gift. While the introduction to Sudoku was helpful and much more thorough than other books, I was very nearly put off by what they consider "gentle" puzzles. I found them quite difficult compared to what I had encountered in the newspaper and on the internet. So I would not consider this the book for a very casual sudoku puzzler but rather someone who wants more of a challenge. Assuming I ever get through the "gentle" ones, I imagine the moderate and tough part of the book will go untouched.



3. Sudoku! Even the name is redolent of an island paradise far from the traditional workaday rat race! Did you know that, as Michael Mepham confesses, the game is an American one which the Japanese picked up and gave it their own translation for its name? It's true: "Su" means "number," while "doku" means bachelor. And In English, "sudo" means "pseudo," that is, ersatz or fake, while "ku" means, well, in English we have the expression "cuckoo," as in "I'm nuts about Sudoku!"
   
   Mepham is an affable editor who has grouped his puzzles from easy to hard, or in his words, gentle to diabolical.
   
   Every couple of spaces he helps out and drops a digit into one of the boxes. For imagine how "diabolical" this game would be with no numbers in it whatsoever! Will Shortz has several Sudoku books not worth the paper they're printed on, for Will is great at wordplay but I wouldn't trust him across the street without his pocket calculator. Meanwhile, England's Mepham is a sly dog, for when I picked up my pencil, never having seen a Sudoku puzzle before, and tried to solve the one on page 65, I saw right away the numbers 1, 6, 7, and 9, and I thought to myself, "What if this is some sort of reference to English history?" For example, which famous philosopher and author of THE LEVIATHAN died in that year? Why, Thomas Hobbes, of course, the man who wrote, "All that is real is material, and what is not material is not real." In France in that same year Papin invented the pressure cooker: coincidence? I think not!
   
   As a puzzler, Mepham's happy flourish is his reluctance to use the number "8," and also his quirk in labelling his hard puzzles easy, whereas even your own children in 4th grade will be able to polish all his so-called "stumpers." It's sort of like, you know how in England, you have to drive on the wrong side of the road? Grading your Sudokus is like that here. This was last year's hottest puzzle craze, and for me, the puzzles on page 65 (the aforementioned "moderate" Hobbesian puzzle), 105, with its geometrically spiral hint cluster, and 127, with its ribbon of hints forming a northeast-southwest pattern, are the sweetest flavors on display here.
   
   Two pages of worksheets help pad out a book that needs a lot of padding out. The pages I got were filled in already by another owner, a man I suspect by his handwriting, who must have been a complete dope.



4. Great book for this sudoku addict. The puzzles are very hard. Even the easy ones. Michael Mepham is my favorite sudoku author. I love this book! Not recommended for beginners. Hint: The first 5 puzzles relate to how to solve the puzzles in the how to do section in beginning of book. Then they get easy.



5. Many good books on the subject and this is one of them! Fun and makes you think as you do harder ones.

3 comments about Will Shortz Presents Summertime Pocket Kakuro (Will Shortz Presents...).

1. This collection of kakuro contains 150 puzzles ranging from difficulty levels "light and easy" to "beware! very challenging." I go through phases of doing tons of kakuro to doing none at all and this book definately has a lot to offer even the starting kakuro solver. There is a nice combinations table at the beginning of the book for those of us that like to have the possible combinations given instead of trying to figure them all out. The table provides all possible combinations for numbers and clues that have only one or two solutions (i.e. 11: 1, 2, 3, 5 and 12: 1, 2, 3, 6; 1, 2, 4, 5). The few other books I have encountered have only show the clues that have only one possible solution. That is one of the reasons I got this book.
   
   I am annoyed with some aspects of this collection. Some of the puzzles have starting numbers already filled in the puzzle. I have no idea why this is; but I wish it was completely empty. I also don't like the fact that the clue number boxes are colored in. It makes it difficult to quickly read the number. Finally, the paper quality is not optimal and easily rips or tears with a sharp pencil. I have found that if you place scotch tape over the entire puzzle it makes it more sturdy and you can easily erase pencil from the tape. It also seems that there are more easier level puzzles and fewer of the harder difficulty levels, which may trouble some more advanced puzzlers. Of course, if you are starting out, this book contains 65 of the easiest difficulty levels.
   
   Overall, this is a nice book if you can get over the small things mentioned (or if those things do not bother you). Good luck!



2. The size is smaller and more convenient for travel than some of the other puzzle books, but is PACKED with hours and hours of fun. If you haven't discovered the number puzzle craze yet--- you can start here!



3. I am an avid Kakuro fan and have purchased quite a few books. I was excited to see a book by Will Shortz because he has such a good name in the puzzle field. But I was very disappointed by this collection. The puzzels are simply too small. I enjoy a puzzle that is at least 10 x 10, I prefer even larger puzzle, ones that take up the full page. This book is filled with small puzzles, some are tough to complete but don't have the complexity of a larger puzzle.

4 comments about The Dell Book of Logic Problems, Number 6 (Dell Book of Logic Problems).

1. In my capacity as a teacher, I want students to have practice THINKING..and this is what logic puzzles such as the ones here provide. This book includes the organizational charts, the solution to the puzzles, as well as an explanation for the solutions. It would be excellent if they would include the answer in chart form as well. (I translate these for foreign language classes..the language is simple enough for a beginning level class. Very challenging !



2. I have always loved logic problems better than any other puzzles. This book definitely delivers some hefty problems. Though it contains only 75 of them, each are involved enough to keep you working on each one for a good while. The only drawback is that the answer section in the back does not have charts. I would have like to seen a graph to quickly see if I'm right or not. Though, each problem does have a talk through section and a concise summary of answers.

   Overall, each problem is challenging and has a variety of subjects to keep you involved with it. If you like logic problems, I highly recommend this. It's definitely worth it.




3. I've been into Dell Crosswords and Especially Logic Problems since I was 16; my father's word puzzle love facilitated my addiction.

   I use a logic problem to lull me to sleep every evening. Yearly I upgrade my thesaurus for the latest, and more wordly edition to keep up with the curves thrown by the international crosswords. Try to keep my mind a step above the "rust".

   Back in my Trig and Calc days, they drilled into me the need to constantly write down known variables, and chart info, to keep track of your formulas and progress in solving a problem. Logic Problems reinforce this practice.

   I've got my kid thinking in charts with his schoolwork, especially homework.




4. If you're looking for a book strictly dedicated to logic problems in which charts are used to work out solutions (i.e. 5 people with 5 jobs wearing 5 shirt colors - figure out who does what job wearing what shirt), this book is for you.
   
   I was ecstatic to finally find a book that exclusively had these types of puzzles as I've been oftentimes disappointed by puzzle/game books, which had maybe 3 or 4 of these types of puzzles amongst a myriad of highly lame other types.
   
   These 75 puzzles will keep you plenty busy and are a reliable go-to for entertainment and hearty brain exercise.

5 comments about Geometric Puzzle Design.

1. Coffin does it again, with the quintessential wooden puzzle builder's guide. If you're fortunate enough to have previous works by Stewart, keep in mind that this is an updated version, so a lot will be repetitive. Then again, if you have the previous version, you're probably a Puzzle Junkie, in which case the updates alone are probably worth it.
   If I were going to be stuck on a desert island...and there were trees, and I had a knife and a sharpening stone...then this would be the One Book I'd want.



2. Written by veteran woodworker and expert wood puzzle designer Stewart Coffin, Geometric Puzzle Design is a one-of-a-kind guide to creating intriguing, three-dimensional wooden puzzles. Special techniques for creating oddly shaped small puzzle pieces accurately and safely, recommendations for drafting one's own original designs, mathematical concepts that can be applied as engineering tools, and much more fill this original craftsman's manual. A "must-have" for intermediate to advanced woodworkers seeking to create truly brain-teasing gifts.



3. This book covers a large number of puzzle designs, most due to the author. Most of these puzzles have become sought-after classics. The puzzles are mostly 3D interlocking burrs, but there also included are 2D designs, sliding block puzzles, and non-interlocking 3D puzzles. The author also talks about how to build puzzles, characteristics of wood, etc.
   
   I am not a puzzle builder, but enjoyed the book immesely. The author is an excellent writer and his musings about symmetry and general design considerations I found fascinating. Solutions in general are lacking and much is left to the ingenuity of the reader to keep the mystery of solving these puzzles fresh.
   
   Although you can download a pdf copy of this book for free, I enjoy the physical copy for perusal. Highly recommended.



4. as a long time collector and producer of wooden puzzles is this new puzzlebook an absolute Must for every puzzle interested people; although I have all Coffin`s former editions this new review about his designs is usefull for collectors as well as for producers of puzzles;



5. Book is well written. Theories are great. I would have prefered more instruction on making the puzzles rather than just the theory.