So exciting! I'm holding my very own copy of Puzzle Masterpieces by Patrick Berry. Elegant Challenges for Crossword Lovers is an apt subtitle, because the 40 variety crosswords inside are elegant and lovable. I've solved three puzzles so far, but I'll probably make the book last a year. After all, I have one and a half Henry Hook variety puzzle books to finish... and two more highly anticipated releases this year, Longo's Vowelless and Quigley's Diagramless crossword books.
Since I hadn't splurged in a while, I picked up a few more puzzle books from Amazon. Super Saver Shipping, dontcha know.
- Jonesin' for Crosswords by Matt Jones - I don't think I've solved any of these old Jonesin' puzzles.
- Cranium-Crushing Friday Crosswords (NY Sun) edited by Peter Gordon - I know I've solved most of these, but they're still good the second time around (and a year later)...
- 101 Cryptic Crosswords: From the New Yorker edited by Fraser Simpson - yes, it's time to learn cryptics! This is generally acknowledged as the best starter book. I also got Simpson's followup, which goes one better (102 Cryptic Crosswords).
- Will Shortz's X-Treme X-Words - alas, I got the ugly colorful cover instead of the badass black one. One of the few NYT books worth having despite overlapping with the online archives... good training for the A Division finals. :)
These used books haven't arrived yet:
- Random House UltraHard Crossword Omnibus, Volume 1 edited by Stanley Newman - bought it even though I own one of the five omnibus-ed books. It's 250 vintage Saturday Stumpers from the '90s. They're not as hard as today's, except for 15 bona fide ultra-hard stumpers (I haven't been able to finish the three I've tried).
- Random House $10,000 Trivia Challenge by Henry Hook - not sure what the meta-puzzle aspect is, but you can't go wrong with Hook. (Another meta Hook book, Two-Step Crosswords, was great.)
- The Mind-Challenge Puzzle Book by Cox/Rathvon et al. - don't know exactly what's reprinted in here... I know there are non-crossword puzzles, but hopefully new-to-me crosswords too.
And, most excitingly:
- Games Magazine Variety Crossword Puzzles, Volume 1 - from the '80s and '90s, but new to me! The seller I bought it from discovered they didn't actually have it, but fortunately I found another copy elsewhere.
2 comments:
The Henry Hook trivia challenge book is wonderful. Closest thing to an NPL convention Saturday night extravanganza, that you can do by yourself.
Thanks Ellen. Sounds good, though I can never make any headway when I look at Mystery Hunt-type puzzles.
If you think of any old books that I've never mentioned, let me know! I'm running out of things to buy.
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