Games, Games, Games

Not only do I love books for reading, but I love books for games. I love books of different kinds of word games. I've always had lots of word search books, but one year a friend found a little book with all sorts of variations of word games, it was awesome! I even love attempting crossword puzzles, although I can't usually think of all the answers myself. The crosswords I really like are the puzzles that give you one six or seven letter word and you have to figure out the rest of the board based on the letters used in that one word.

One night when I was out of these word games I got online and gave Sudoku a try. I had a blast. I found a variety of websites to play on, including the German M&M's website where you play with M&M's. I played online for quite a while, but I really missed putting pencil to paper for the game so I found a book. The one I chose was The Mammoth Book of Sudoku. It has all different kinds of Sudoku in it, all except Killer Sudoku that is, and I've enjoyed it immensely. I loved being able to work through my game with a pencil again. The book starts very simply with the basic Sudoku grids and grows gradually more and more challenging. There was a lot of variation in the types of Sudoku and I was astonished at how much more difficult I found it to work though a grid using shapes instead of letters or numbers. The first part would be a great place for a first-timer to learn the game and advance in difficulty and the last is nice for those who are ready for more of a challenge. I've really fallen for this game, sometimes it keeps me up nights it's so addictive. I even work on it while I listen to audiobooks. I've yet to try Killer Sudoku, but I'm working towards it. Unfortunately books like this are not really appropriate for libraries as most people go through them as a one-time-use book, but there are a lot of other books on games and puzzles in the library's collection. Here's a just a few of the ones that looked interesting to me:












The World's Most Challenging Puzzles by Charles Barry Townsend

Math Puzzles and Games by Michael Holt

The Mensa Think-Smart Book by Abbie Salny and Lewis Burke Frumkes.

100 Geometric Games by Pierre Berloquin.













Elizabeth