Will Shortz Presents The Little Black Book of Sudoku: 400 Puzzles (Will Shortz Presents...) (Spiral-bound)

by Will Shortz (Editor)
Key Phrases: Very Challenging

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

 It's smart. It's stylish. It's fun! And with its unique design, Will Shortz Presents The Little Black Book of Sudoku is bound to be the "must-have" collection for any puzzle fan. Edited by crossword great Will Shortz, this beautiful book offers 400 easy-to-hard puzzles in a convenient portable size, perfect for carrying in your purse, briefcase, or backpack. Features:
* 400 sudoku puzzles, arranged according to difficulty
* Sleek design with a covered spiral binding makes it easy to solve puzzles
* Durable hardcover protects the book as it travels with you wherever you go

* The perfect gift for any holiday

* Edited by Will Shortz.

About the Author

WILL SHORTZ has edited The New York Times crossword puzzles since 1993. He founded and directs the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament and captains the U.S. team in the World Puzzle Championship. He is also Puzzlemaster for "Weekend Edition Sunday"on NPR. He lives in Pleasantville, New York.

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Product Details Spiral-bound: 464 pages Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; 1st edition (November 14, 2006) Language: English ISBN-10: 0312368690 ISBN-13: 978-0312368692 Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 6.2 x 1.5 inches Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies) Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (40 customer reviews) Amazon.com Sales Rank: #4,057 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books) Popular in these categories: (What's this?) #1 in  Books > Entertainment > Puzzles & Games > Crosswords #1 in  Books > Entertainment > Puzzles & Games > Sudoku #2 in  Books > Entertainment > Puzzles & Games > Puzzles

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Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Very Challenging

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Front Cover | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!

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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

	70% buy the item featured on this page: Will Shortz Presents The Little Black Book of Sudoku: 400 Puzzles (Will Shortz Presents...) 4.5 out of 5 stars (40) $10.17
	11% buy Will Shortz Presents Ferocious Sudoku: 200 Hard Puzzles 4.2 out of 5 stars (5) $6.95
	8% buy Sudoku: Medium to Hard 4.7 out of 5 stars (22) $6.95
	6% buy Mensa Guide to Solving Sudoku: Hundreds of Puzzles Plus Techniques to Help You Crack Them All 4.3 out of 5 stars (33) $12.21

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Customer Reviews

40 Reviews 5 star:  (29) 4 star:  (8) 3 star:    (0) 2 star:  (2) 1 star:  (1)           Average Customer Review 4.5 out of 5 stars (40 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews 50 of 50 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars Will Shortz + Sudoku = Great puzzling, February 9, 2007 By  R. Hubbard (Drums, PA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)    Will Shortz is a fabulous puzzle editor, and this collection is one of his best. The spine of the book is spiral, which fascilitates puzzle working. Extremely high quality paper makes it easy to erase notes or mistakes. I recommend this to anyone who enjoys sudoku. It has four levels of difficulty, 100 puzzles of each level. 40 of 40 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars 5 stars for Will Shortz, 4 stars for the book design., February 17, 2008 By  Mary Whipple (New England) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    Long recognized as a great "puzzler," not just for sudoku but for his NYTimes crosswords, Will Shortz provides 400 puzzles of difficulties ranging from "Light and Easy" to "Beware! Very Challenging!" Regardless of the level, these puzzles are scrupulously fair, requiring, in my experience, only two occasions of "trailing" (and those may have been my own fault), when most other such books often require the puzzler to use this "technique" many times during the book. "Trailing" is the controversial "technique" in which a puzzler, unable to move further in the puzzle, (desperately) chooses a number from a set of pairs and inserts it into the box. The puzzler then trails the results as they suggest other solutions involving other numbers throughout the puzzle to see if they work or if, eventually, you get duplicates in rows, columns or squares. (If you do, you have to backtrack and insert the other number from the pair, which should work.) Many puzzlers feel that this "technique" is not "logic" but guesswork. The book is a convenient size and has a spiral binding. The puzzles are large, and the pages are smooth and very white, allowing you to write in plenty of options and do whatever erasing you may require without roughing up the surface of the page (in case you decide to start over). Some of the puzzles which look the most difficult and have the most empty spaces are, in fact, the most fun, with surprises opening up as you do the puzzle. Many are very tricky (but fair), and some will have you berating yourself for missing something that should have been obvious, especially in the most challenging puzzles. For pure fun, without the frustration which trailing produces in many of us, this is one of the best books around. My only problem with the book concerns the spiral binding. Very soon after I started working the Demanding and Very Challenging puzzles in the back of the book, the back cover and some of the answer pages started releasing themselves from the spiral. After many annoying episodes of this, I finally released the back cover and let it hang loose. (It didn't make any difference to the book's sturdiness.) I put the pages back into the spiral, and then used household wire to overcast the spiral completely closed. That held the pages in place and solved the problem. n Mary Whipple 15 of 16 people found the following review helpful: 4.0 out of 5 stars Pretty good little book, August 21, 2007 By  LazuliLong (North Carolina) - See all my reviews Mostly, I love the spiral binding and hardcover, because I can haul it around on my breaks at work. No more trying to write on my knee without poking my pencil through the paper. But I've done about 1/4th of the puzzles and the back cover has slipped out of the binding twice. So far it's slipped back in pretty easily but it's got me slightly worried.		Most Recent Customer Reviews 5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent collection I love the size of the book and the organization. It allows a beginner to work their way up to the more demanding puzzles. Read more Published 1 day ago by M. Tocco 2.0 out of 5 stars Sprial bound - never again! Love all the puzzles and the variety of difficulties. HATE the binding. Pages are coming out. The back of the book came off the spiral. Read more Published 29 days ago by Nancy 4.0 out of 5 stars Nice, but awkward The puzzles are great, and the quality of the paper is high. But I bought spiral-bound thinking I could fold it back on itself to work one puzzle at a time. Read more Published 1 month ago by C. Estrada 5.0 out of 5 stars 400 Sudoku puzzles This book contains 400 Sudoku puzzles to meet all skill levels from easy to difficult. The pages are high quality print that is easy to read, even erase when neccessary. Read more Published 2 months ago by Donald R. Williams 5.0 out of 5 stars Really nice This sturdy puzzle book is great. We have two of them in the house because neither of us can leave it alone for long. The spiral binding is a must- have. Read more Published 2 months ago by Terri Moon 5.0 out of 5 stars addicting I purchased this book as a gift for my husband since he just got hooked on the game. All he does now is play in his little black book! I guess it could be worse!!! Read more Published 2 months ago by Marina 5.0 out of 5 stars Great book! This hardcover puzzle book is the best! Good variety of Sudoku puzzles and the spiral bound cover is very sturdy. Plan to get one for my mother next. Published 3 months ago by The Farmer's Daughter 1.0 out of 5 stars terrible spine makes impossible to use on lap or on table WARNING!! I love other Will Shortz Sudoku books so I ordered the spiral version thinking that it would be a great format. Read more Published 3 months ago by artiste 5.0 out of 5 stars Spiral binding is the best thing that happened to sudoku! I'm no sudoku expert, but my friend enjoys working on the puzzles while on the commode. Needless to say, I got this for her. Read more Published 5 months ago by A. Schuett 4.0 out of 5 stars Great gift My daughter had this on her Amazon wish list and was very excited when she received it as one of her Christmas gifts. She loves Sudoku! Published 6 months ago by Cathie Ming Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews

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Product Details

• Spiral-bound: 464 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; 1st edition (November 14, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312368690
• ISBN-13: 978-0312368692
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 6.2 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #4,057 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #1 in	Books > Entertainment > Puzzles & Games > Crosswords
  #1 in	Books > Entertainment > Puzzles & Games > Sudoku
  #2 in	Books > Entertainment > Puzzles & Games > Puzzles

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Will Shortz + Sudoku = Great puzzling, February 9, 2007

By	R. Hubbard (Drums, PA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Will Shortz is a fabulous puzzle editor, and this collection is one of his best. The spine of the book is spiral, which fascilitates puzzle working. Extremely high quality paper makes it easy to erase notes or mistakes. I recommend this to anyone who enjoys sudoku. It has four levels of difficulty, 100 puzzles of each level.

40 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 5 stars for Will Shortz, 4 stars for the book design., February 17, 2008

By	Mary Whipple (New England) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

Long recognized as a great "puzzler," not just for sudoku but for his NYTimes crosswords, Will Shortz provides 400 puzzles of difficulties ranging from "Light and Easy" to "Beware! Very Challenging!" Regardless of the level, these puzzles are scrupulously fair, requiring, in my experience, only two occasions of "trailing" (and those may have been my own fault), when most other such books often require the puzzler to use this "technique" many times during the book.

"Trailing" is the controversial "technique" in which a puzzler, unable to move further in the puzzle, (desperately) chooses a number from a set of pairs and inserts it into the box. The puzzler then trails the results as they suggest other solutions involving other numbers throughout the puzzle to see if they work or if, eventually, you get duplicates in rows, columns or squares. (If you do, you have to backtrack and insert the other number from the pair, which should work.) Many puzzlers feel that this "technique" is not "logic" but guesswork.

The book is a convenient size and has a spiral binding. The puzzles are large, and the pages are smooth and very white, allowing you to write in plenty of options and do whatever erasing you may require without roughing up the surface of the page (in case you decide to start over). Some of the puzzles which look the most difficult and have the most empty spaces are, in fact, the most fun, with surprises opening up as you do the puzzle. Many are very tricky (but fair), and some will have you berating yourself for missing something that should have been obvious, especially in the most challenging puzzles. For pure fun, without the frustration which trailing produces in many of us, this is one of the best books around.

My only problem with the book concerns the spiral binding. Very soon after I started working the Demanding and Very Challenging puzzles in the back of the book, the back cover and some of the answer pages started releasing themselves from the spiral. After many annoying episodes of this, I finally released the back cover and let it hang loose. (It didn't make any difference to the book's sturdiness.) I put the pages back into the spiral, and then used household wire to overcast the spiral completely closed. That held the pages in place and solved the problem. n Mary Whipple

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pretty good little book, August 21, 2007

By	LazuliLong (North Carolina) - See all my reviews

Mostly, I love the spiral binding and hardcover, because I can haul it around on my breaks at work. No more trying to write on my knee without poking my pencil through the paper. But I've done about 1/4th of the puzzles and the back cover has slipped out of the binding twice. So far it's slipped back in pretty easily but it's got me slightly worried.