Customer Reviews

Astounding Acrostic Puzzles (Mensa)

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I thought the one-star review was far too harsh (and unnecessarily sarcastic). And I'm not sure it's a valid criticism of any collection of crossword or acrostic puzzles to simply dismiss them as too easy. Too easy for whom? People vary in their skill level. Some solve the Sunday New York Times crossword in 15 minutes; others struggle for hours. Both groups enjoy themselves.

Personally, I found the puzzles in this collection to be very engaging. To be sure, some of them are relatively easy (at least for experienced acrostics enthusiasts), but others are certainly not "a piece of cake." The quotes are quite interesting and/or entertaining, and the clues are often refreshingly quirky. I think this collection makes acrostics more accessible to the newcomer, yet is a lot of fun for old hands (at least for this old hand).

I've become something of an "acrostics nut," thanks in part to collections like this one. I gave up on acrostics for many years because I found the puzzles by Thomas Middleton and the like to be just too daunting for the beginner. I developed acrostics skills by working puzzles of increasing difficulty and now I, too, look for the tough ones. This book and Ms. Brown's previous collection are an excellent introduction to an absorbing pastime.

I should preface my comments by stating that I am both a Mensan AND a long-time solver, constructor and editor of acrostic puzzles. Even though each puzzle is graded from one to four stars for level of difficulty, experienced solvers should have no problem with any of these. The puzzles themselves (quotation and word list) are interesting and feature a number of literary and movie/TV references. But, while the puzzles are of average length (85 to 115 characters), each one is spread out over two full pages. It would have been an easy matter to print one puzzle per page, thus giving us 80 puzzles rather than the 40 published here. Also, I believe most solvers would prefer an entire book geared to their solving level, e.g., all easy for beginners, and all challenging for experienced solvers. This book will cause some solvers to lose interest. Experienced solvers would do better to purchase a book of puzzles by Charles A. Duerr.

These puzzles are presented with ratings of one to four stars for difficulty. I found the one star through three stars about the same, and not too difficult. I can not do any of the four stars. These puzzles have a lot of current topical references.

Don't let the "source" fool you - Mensa may be intelligent but they're not so smart.
This so-called spiral bound book does not lend itself to self-contained solving for two reasons: the binding does not easily fold back on itself to provide a firm writing surface and each puzzle takes up two pages so the book must be fully opened!
Don't waste your money. The NY Times spiral bound book is a much better investment.

For a product attributed to Mensa, this is much too easy
a set of acrostics. Please update to a tougher level next time.

I found these acrostic puzzles to be astoundingly unchallenging, especially considering that the book is billed as an "Official Mensa Puzzle Book". The puzzles are rated from one to four stars by difficulty, but even those with four stars are not much of a challenge. The most astounding thing about this book is that Mensa would lend its name to it.