Puzzle Books (the kinds with puzzles in them)

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Because the other thread wasn't quite what Archel and I thought it would be.

Archel posted a picture of a book of British-style crossword puzzles, and actually I've been working my way through one recently. Powell's had a few copies of a "learn to do cryptic crosswords" book remaindered, which wouldn't normally be so exciting, since I know how to do them, but it was written by Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon, who are my favorite crossword-puzzle-makers. I was curious to see what their prose style was write.

Well, turns out, it's pretty excited! And nerdishly silly! Not really recommended for their stylings, but of course the puzzles are sure to be good.

And so I've been working on these, which even though I "get" are not my main mode of xword puzzles (I'm more of a NYTimes-puzzle type person) and it's been great fun.

Anyway, this is the thread where we discuss books of puzzles (though not necessarily just crossword puzzles, any and all kinds are welcome).

― Casuistry (Chris P), Friday, 25 June 2004 17:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Like, for instnace, one of my 50 books for Cozen is Smullyan's "Alice In Puzzle-Land", a book of really twisted logic puzzles with the comp-sci mind in mind. That sort of thing would also be find for this thread.

There's already an ILE thread for posting your favorite cryptic/British-style crossword clue, but honestly if a few of those showed up on this thread I wouldn't complain.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Friday, 25 June 2004 18:00 (twenty-one years ago)

My mom used to get me one of the Games Magazine compilation books every time we went on a really long vacation. Those were great, but I don't remember any specific ones standing out.

Cryptic crosswords are exactly that for me. I don't think I've ever come close to completing one.

― Vinnie (vprabhu), Friday, 25 June 2004 18:14 (twenty-one years ago)

The first Games Magazine compilation book was significantly better than the second, although this might be just because I been a subscriber to Games when all the puzzles in the second one were originally published, and so I had already done them all!

― Casuistry (Chris P), Friday, 25 June 2004 18:17 (twenty-one years ago)

That would be a good reason to prefer one over the other. :)

― Vinnie (vprabhu), Friday, 25 June 2004 18:37 (twenty-one years ago)

My aunt and uncle gave me a book for my birthday when I was a kid called "The Eleventh Hour" which was a great puzzle book if you're into that sort of thing (I'm not, and after a few maddening days I broke the seal at the end that gave away the answers to all the puzzles and the Big Secret of Whodunit). It'd probably be a lot of fun for adults, too.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0810908514/qid=1088205193/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/102-2320016-2173748

― Natalie (Penny Dreadful), Friday, 25 June 2004 22:14 (twenty-one years ago)

I really like some of Smullyan's! His paradoxes are kinda lame and nerdy, but the puzzles are ace.

A site I like: http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~wwu/riddles/intro.shtml . A lot from the 'hard' section are extraordinarily classic, especially the '100 prisoners and a lightbulb' one, which is really just beautiful and engrossing and addictive, and which I think I've tortured Sinisters with in the past.

― Gregory Henry (Gregory Henry), Saturday, 26 June 2004 19:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Have you read Pretty Girl in Crimson Rose Chris? It's not really about how to do crosswords, more an history/biography of them and of the author. I did pick up some tips on solving though, and it was very entertaining.

The thing I like about books of crosswords is: I can do the Telegraph crossword (which I was raised on at my grandma's knee) without having to buy the Telegraph. Woo!

― Archel (Archel), Monday, 28 June 2004 12:53 (twenty-one years ago)

No, but that looks terrific!

― Casuistry (Chris P), Monday, 28 June 2004 17:59 (twenty-one years ago)

And the title is driving me crazy.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Monday, 28 June 2004 18:04 (twenty-one years ago)

Haha it has 8 letters for what it's worth...

― Archel (Archel), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 07:10 (twenty-one years ago)

http://philosophy.hku.hk/think/logic/hardest.php

― Sam (chirombo), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 08:19 (twenty-one years ago)

Whoa. I've done that without the da/ja thing, but whoa. That's the next few train journeys crossed off, then.

― Gregory Henry (Gregory Henry), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 08:50 (twenty-one years ago)

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