Customer Reviews

Mensa Crosswords for the Super Smart: 72 Cranium-Crushing Challenges

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

 

 

Delivers as described, large swaths of white squares, many answers stacked and traversing the entire width or height of the diagram. Takes a long time to figure out, but when you do (aha!), the letters fill in quickly due to the long answers cascading together. The clues are clever and contemporary, referencing the latest events and popular culture. If you like the Saturday NY Times puzzles, this book is for you, because these puzzles are even harder.

Also, half the puzzles do not follow the traditional symmetry of grid design. Personally, I didn't mind at all.

A thoughtful touch is the book design: spiral bound pages, stiff covers, bright white paper make for convenient solving. The solution pages are bound so that the appropriate answer appears directly under the puzzle you're attempting -- another nice touch.

these puzzles are indeed challenging. they are filled with pointless trivia and contain no humor. there are equally difficult puzzles that entertain and amuse as one goes about solving. these have no charm

Many "tough" crossword compilations fall in the medium-to-hard category, not nearly challenging enough for those of us who love to torture ourselves by staring at arcane clues, trying to figure out what the puzzler was thinking ... of course, the joy of the "aha" moment more than compensates for the torture. The Mensa Crosswords, I'm happy to say, live up to the "cranium-crushing" description. (I finished them, but I admit to peeking at the answers on a few occasions!) I hope Mr. Longo will favor us with a Volume 2 soon.

I had my doubts about ordering this book sight unseen. I'm a pretty good crossword solver, i.e., I can do the Saturday NY Times puzzles without a lot of trouble. But the first one I tried in this book just about threw me, until I finally figured out that I needed to take my time, put it down, come back to it, worry it like a dog with a bone, and finally - ta da! - finish the sucker. Since then I've done about half of the puzzles -- I'm rationing them so the book will last -- and they are definitely worth working on. I will admit I've had to look up a few answers, and let's be candid: some of the clues are beyond vague. But the challenge is the thing, and I'm enjoying that.

The asymmetrical puzzles have made me wonder why crosswords have to be symmetric. Tradition, I guess. For sure, the assymetric ones -- every other one in the book -- are harder because Longo stacks up long words and those are harder to get without the little three-letter crossing words.

So, it gets my thumbs-up. And if you buy it you have my good wishes!

Scott Morrison

...when I finally finished Longo's second cranium crushing crossword book (CCC2 as I would call this Mensa Crosswords book), today, was.......

"Now what am I going to do with the rest of my life?"

What I mean by this is: This was simply the very best crossword book I have ever (almost) completed!

Lemme explain:

Most chronic solvers like myself consider themselves connoisseurs to justify their massive fun and time investment. We also think it somehow "sharpens" our brains or prevents or postpones early Alzheimer changes. Very good chance it does. While this book may not be proven to increase IQ points in double blind controlled studies, it most certainly slows down the IQ point loss we young 60-year old whippersnappers can often experience.

If you are one of those many people I know who feel their IQ is much higher than what it is in reality, and are buying this book to prove it....fuhgedaboutit! You will meet with massive defeat! The book is grizzly, grueling, painful, thorny, every step of the way. I found it to be measurably harder than CCC1, Longo's first book, and it took me a bit longer to solve CCC2 than CCC1. I would like to think the reason for this is not because I turned 60 last month, but because it really is harder chiefly because Longo was the first pioneering cruciverbalist to say bye-bye to restraining American symmetry and do things, all difficult for him and you, to make things MUCH more interesting and tough.

Bye-bye American symmetry, and good riddance. We will never miss you!

I promise you that if you are a masochistic habanero chewer and like to burn off your nose hairs with lighter fluid just to prove how macho you are, this book is for you. It rocks. The 2 very unique things about Mensa Crosswords is that:

#1: Every crossword will be completely different from any other one you have ever solved. Every puzzle will have MANY words and phrases you have never seen before.

#2: Every puzzle will have at least one or two hall-of-fame clues which you will recall for many days or months and chuckle when you think about them.

But make no mistake---Longo will boldly keep his reputation as America's #1 wholesome constructor, and king of smooth, seamless entries.

The main drawback of the book will be, that, after you are finished, and probably are also bloody, fried, comatose, perhaps angry, but knowing you have permanently doubled your IQ (which in my case is now up to 140), you will say:

"Now what am I going to do with the rest of my life?"

Respectively submitted,

Popeye

At first glance, I was put off by all the super-smart claims, but bought it anyway, due to Longo's authorship. These puzzles were tough, fair. I often found myself chuckling, because the solutions had forced a new and initially unsuspected appreciation of meaning. Longo eschewed some elements of symmetry, also. This didn't seem to make the puzzles more difficult to solve, but might have eased the construction.

After 3 or 4 years, this book stands out in my memory as the most enjoyable book of crosswords I've ever worked. I wish that Mr. Longo would write another such book. I'd buy it in a heartbeat!

It's frustrating to buy a book and find that the puzzles have already been published in different books with different covers.

This is the third look for these puzzles that I am aware of.