Customer Reviews

The Ultimate Sudoku Challenge Presented by Will Shortz: 100 Wordless Crossword Puzzles

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

 

 

Let me tell you something: Since I started doing sudoku, less than a year ago, my life has changed in numerous impressive ways. My reflexes are sharper. My attention and concentration have improved. I am meditating again. My blood pressure is lower. My heart rate is lower. My tendonitis has been healed. Believe me. My finances are finally in order. I forgave the people that have wronged me. I asked for forgiveness from the people that I had wronged. I thanked the people who deserved my gratitude.

The brain is like a muscle. It needs exercise. Ordering bad American movies on Netflix does not work out your brain. Puzzles do. Sure, you can do crossword puzzles, but they are really annoying with those stupid little clues. I know those so-called crossword puzzle experts have just memorized a bunch of useless clues (like soap opera star names) and common three or four letter words that no one uses in everyday speech. I like the jumble a little, my mother pushed those on me in exchange for attempting sudoku. They are a little crossword puzzle-ish but you are rearranging letters, running through different combinations and permutations in your head, so a little more satisfying to me. But I don't want to knock anything. Do what you like.

But, we know from published studies in the Geriatric Psych literature that elderly people do better mentally and physically when they exercise their minds. So learn knew things. Do sudoku. Read good books. Write your family's history. Even if you don't think you're old yet. You're not as young as you used to be, so keep those new connections sprouting (it's not the number of neurons, not the size of neurons, but the number of synapses, the number of unique connections between neurons within the brain).

This is a good sudoku book. Nice balance of skill levels. Will Shortz always does a good job with these books.

Buy it. Buy it for an elderly buddy who thinks they're too old to learn new things.

I look for Sudoku books with three qualities. First, I want puzzles that have only one solution. If I find a book that includes puzzles with more than one solution I discard it. Two, I want books with grids large enough that I can enter candidates in the cells. Third, I want books with challenging puzzles. Many of the descriptions on Amazon omit such info.

I prefer grids that are about 4 ½" x 4 ½". The grids in my newspaper are about 3" x 3" (which is tolerable because not many candidates are needed).

Shortz's The Ultimate Sudoku Challenge: The puzzles have only one solution; the grids are 4 ½" x 4 1/2", and 15 are "Light and Easy," 25 "Moderate," 30 "Demanding," and 30 "Beware! Very Challenging." Even the "Light and Easy" puzzles are more difficult than the "Light and Easy" puzzles in the "Easy to Hard" books. (Do not confuse this book with Shortz's Ultimate Sudoku 1000 -- the book pictured on Amazon. Amazon needs to replace the photo of Sudoku 1000 with a photo of the cover of Sudoku Challenge [100 puzzles], the book you get when you order from the Sudoku 1000 photo.)

I rated this a four only because the paper quality is not as nice as "The Little Black Book of Sudoku", also by Shortz.