The Book of Sudoku: The Hot New Puzzle Craze (Paperback)

~ Michael Mepham (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

The first book on the logic and reasoning game that has taken the world by storm and has finally arrived in the U.S.

From the Publisher

Sudoku is a phenomenon all over the world. The addictive logic game, originated in the UK and popularized in Japan, has spread across the globe. The puzzles are now syndicated daily in newspapers in Australia, Germany, Scandinavia, Italy, and Spain, and the mania for Sudoku has just reached American shores.

The rules of the puzzle, as with all great puzzles, are deceptively simple and easy to understand. It's a puzzle of reasoning and logic--no math is involved--which is not to say that Sudoku won't stretch your brain a bit. Depending on one's skill and experience, a Sudoku puzzle can be solved in anywhere from ten minutes to a half hour. Compiler Michael Mepham provides not only the game's background, but also an easy tutorial that will turn the novice into a Sudoku expert within minutes.

The book of Sudoku is the one puzzle book you won't be able to put down--it's fun, challenging, and absolutely addictive!

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Product Details

• Paperback: 146 pages
• Publisher: Overlook TP (July 15, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1585677612
• ISBN-13: 978-1585677610
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 4.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #396,208 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

64 of 66 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great, fun little book!, August 3, 2005

By	O. Brown "Ms. O. Khannah-Brown" (Twopeas, WA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

*****
I bought this book strictly from Amazon reviews, knowing nothing about puzzles, having done a few crossword puzzles when I was a child, but nothing in the many years since. There is enough information in the book to get started with Sudoku, even if you are a complete novice to puzzles, like me.

There are ten pages of instructions and strategy. They are pretty easy, enough to get started with no background at all. After I read it I wondered if I'd actually have fun doing Sudoku, so I did the first puzzle. It took me about 90 minutes, and it was REALLY fun. Sudoku is based upon logic. If you enjoy thinking and figuring things out, and enjoy numbers, you'll love it!

Sudoku is hard to describe in a few sentences, but basically a puzzle consists of a 3X3 square with a 3X3 square inside each of the 9 squares---81 little "cells" in all, 9 down and 9 across. Imagine a large grid---that's what the puzzle looks like. The object is to place the digits 1 through 9 only once in each of the small 3X3 squares (of which there are 9). At the same time you must have unique digits going across all of the "cells" and unique digits going down all of the "cells".

I think that now that I've gotten the hang of things (I had to go back and reread parts of the instructions,too), I could do a puzzle in 30-60 minutes as a novice. I expect to get better each time and have a short learning curve.

There are 32 gentle puzzles, 66 moderate puzzles, and 34 tough puzzles, more than enough to make the book a great value.

I am going to have to pace myself so that I don't get addicted and ignore my responsibilities :)
*****

38 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Do You Sudoku? This Book Will Show You How!, August 17, 2005

By	L. Kelly (Lakewood, CO) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I discovered the Sudoku Puzzle in my local paper a few months ago, and quickly became hooked on this puzzle. (The Sudoku puzzle, in its typical form, consists of a large grid of 81 squares, subdivided into nine boxes of nine squares each. The solver must arrange the numbers 1 through 9 so that there are no repeated numbers within each small box, in addition to no repetitions in a horizontal or vertical row of the large puzzle grid. Several numbers are printed in the puzzle as a starting point.) Solving these puzzles is an exercise in pure logic; no wide vocabulary is needed like when solving a crossword puzzle. So when I saw this book containing over one hundred Sudoku puzzles, I just had to have it!

The best part of the book is the strategy guide at the front, which takes the Sudoko solver from the extreme basics all the way through tips for solving the most diabolical Sudoku puzzles. I'm enjoying working my way through the book, towards solving the most difficult puzzles in the book.

Try these puzzles, and I guarantee you'll be hooked too!

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Challenging puzzles...on poor paper, November 20, 2005

By	J. Adams (Albany, NY USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I have to agree with some of the other reviewers--the paper quality makes it difficult to use an eraser. Also the grids are very small, so putting in trial numbers is very difficult.

Sudoku-book publishers of the world, here's my recommendations:
1) Use decent paper, stuff that doesn't wear away with erasing or has ink seeping thru.
2) Make the grids big (6 inch by 6 inch, for example).
3) Make the book such that each page lays flat, perhaps by using a spiral binder.
4) Reinforce the back cover of the book, so that one can do their sudoku while wedged into a tiny seat on public transportation.

Meanwhile, do what I do: go to Michael Mepham's website: [...] and print out big blank sudoku grids. Fill them in with the starting numbers from the book and start solving!