Sudoku Easy to Hard Presented by Will Shortz, Volume 2: 100 Wordless Crossword Puzzles [Paperback]

Will Shortz (Author)

Book Description

Series: Sudoku Easy to Hard | Publication Date: July 28, 2005

The hottest craze in puzzles!

“On no account should any reader not already hooked so much as a glance at a sudoku. That way lies addiction and madness. Sudoku are to the first decade of the twenty-first century what Rubik’s Cube was to the 1970s.”
--Tom Utley, The Daily Telegraph

From puzzlemaster and New York Times crossword editor Will Shortz comes sudoku, the new “wordless crossword” puzzle that’s taking the world by storm! Once you start, you won’t want to stop. These addictive puzzles are easy to explain--just fill the grid with numbers according to the few simple rules--but incredibly fun and engaging to complete. You don’t need any mathematics knowledge: Just supply a pencil and an inquisitive mind.
This brand-new collection features original sudoku ranging from effortlessly easy to devilishly difficult, along with an introduction from Will Shortz that explains these fascinating puzzles and how to solve them. If you’re a crossword fan, a fan of logic puzzles, or just a puzzle lover in general, you will be engrossed and delighted with sudoku!

“A puzzling global phenomenon.”
--The Economist

Editorial Reviews

Review

“A puzzling global phenomenon”
--The Economist

“The biggest craze to hit The Times since the first crossword puzzle was published in 1935.”
--The Times of London

“England’s most addictive newspaper puzzle.”
--New York magazine

“The latest craze in games”
– BBC News

“Sudoku is dangerous stuff. Forget work and family—think papers hurled across the room and industrial-sized blobs of correction fluid. I love it!”
--The Times of London

“Sudokus are to the first decade of the 21st century what Rubik’s Cube was to the 1970s.”
– The Daily Telegraph

“Britain has a new addiction. Hunched over newspapers on crowded subway trains, sneaking secret peeks in the office, a puzzle-crazy nation is trying to slot numbers into small checkerboard grids.”
--Associated Press

“Forget crosswords.”
--The Christian Science Monitor

From the Back Cover

THE HOTTEST CRAZE IN PUZZLES!

"Sudoku are to the first decade of the twenty-first century what Rubik's Cube was to the 1970s."
---Tom Utley, The Daily Telegraph

From puzzlemaster and New York Times crossword editor Will Shortz comes sudoku, the new "wordless crossword" puzzle that's taking the world by storm! Once you start, you won't want to stop. These addictive puzzles are easy to understand---just fill the grid with numbers according to the few simple rules---but incredibly fun and engaging to complete. You don't need any mathematics knowledge: Just supply a pencil and an inquisitive mind.

This brand-new collection features original sudoku ranging from effortlessly easy to devilishly difficult, along with an introduction from Will Shortz that explains these fascinating puzzles and how to solve them. Plus, the last five bonus puzzles in the book are giants---more than 50 percent larger and correspondingly more fun to solve! If you're a crossword fan, a fan of logic puzzles, or just a puzzle lover in general, you will be engrossed and delighted with sudoku!

"A puzzling global phenomenon."
---The Economist

Will Shortz has been crossword editor of The New York Times since 1993. He is also the puzzlemaster on NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday and the founder and director of the annual American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. Will can be reached at www.crosswordtournament.com.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; 1st edition (July 28, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312355033
• ISBN-13: 978-0312355036
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (46 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #619,077 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Will Shortz has been crossword editor of The New York Times since 1993. He is also the puzzlemaster on NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday and is founder and director of the annual American Crossword Puzzle Tournament.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

126 of 127 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good thing I work for the Government!, August 15, 2005

By 

Anthony Sanchez (Fredericksburg, va United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sudoku Easy to Hard Presented by Will Shortz, Volume 2: 100 Wordless Crossword Puzzles (Paperback)

Well, I do work for the government, but I am just sort of kidding about doing these puzzles during government time. This book by Will Shortz is very well presented. I looked at five other books before settling on this and I am very pleased (when I am not breaking my pencil in despair).

Most important to me in buying a Sudoku book was that the puzzles must be large enough so that I can easily write in the squares without jumbling the numbers. When I do them from the newspaper, I usually enlarge the puzzle on the copy machine.

This book seems to do the best in presenting puzzles that are easy on which to write. In addition, there are a good number of puzzles (100) ranging from easy to "very challenging." Some of the easy ones are tough. I just completed the puzzle that appears on the book's cover. This took me two tries and there is no answer key for that one, so keep trying. All the other puzzles in the book contain answers in the back. As with the other Sudoku books, this one contains a brief history of the game and some tips.

There isn't much else that can differentiate one Sudoku book from another. But, I would certainly buy another from this author when it is offered. Even though it is a solitary game, my family/friends have a laugh watching my frustration and successes.

75 of 77 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sudoku Easy to Hard: good variety of puzzles, August 26, 2005

By 

jqr "Know what free advice is worth" (Brooklyn) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sudoku Easy to Hard Presented by Will Shortz, Volume 2: 100 Wordless Crossword Puzzles (Paperback)

This book's puzzles are a lot more difficult than the ones you see in your daily newspaper. Working a sudoku puzzle does get easier as time goes on, however, so take heart.

One tip I can share is to put a letter in the corner of each square to help you remember in what order you filled it in. I start with 'a', go on through 'z', then to 'aa' and so on to 'zz', and then to 'aaa'. That way, when I find a mistake, I only erase the squares that I filled in after the mistaken square.

Good luck and happy solving!

39 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Feeding My Sudoku Obsession..., November 1, 2005

By 

Colleen McMahon ""Omnivorous Reader"" (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sudoku Easy to Hard Presented by Will Shortz, Volume 2: 100 Wordless Crossword Puzzles (Paperback)

Anyone familiar with crossword puzzles knows the name Will Shortz--renowned crossword puzzle creator and editor associated with the New York Times and Games magazine and editor of countless high quality crossword puzzle books. He brings the same high quality to this series of sudoku books.

If you are new to sudoku, I recommend you start with book 1 of the series, which is all easy level puzzles. This book, #2, has four levels of puzzles--Light and EAsy, Moderate, Demanding, and Beware! Very Challenging. I like this because sometimes I like to do a fast, less demanding puzzle and sometimes I like a "chewier" puzzle that requires more time and attention, and I can skip around to the different levels in this book.

The explanation of how to solve sudoku is the most basic one (fill in the numbers 1-9 so that each number appears only once in each row, column and square of the grid) with the very basic steps for solving explained. This isn't a book that walks you through the higher level solving strategies.

But if you just want a bunch of high quality puzzles, with a variety of difficulty levels, on good paper that stands up to lots of erasing, in nice light portable book, this is a good choice!