Welcome to Litsy!

An ardent crossword puzzler, immersion journalist Jacobs turns his attention to the large world of puzzles. We learn about Japanese box puzzles, chess problems with Gary Kasparov, cornfield mazes, Lewis Carroll‘s riddles, MIT‘s scavenger hunt and the World Jigsaw Puzzle Championships (where Jacobs and his family represented the U.S. in hilarious but heartwarming fashion). No matter the category, puzzles frustrate us, delight us and unite us. 🧩

Love this book that was literally all about different types of puzzles and the narration was good as well.

For the rest of my review, visit my Vlog at:

https://youtube.com/shorts/7LwHhPdAU6Q?feature=share

Enjoy!

We‘ll I‘m excited to start this but apparently my dog isn‘t as enthused 😂

A different kind of swimming today. At our local Lido (the only grade 1 listed pool in the UK). Hubby is in the pool with toddler. Kids are warming up with a bag of crisps. I‘ve got my wine sippy cup and kindle- this heaven will only last 5 seconds.

I am one of those creatures who enjoys puzzles - perhaps not as much as A. J. Jacobs - but I definitely get a lot of satisfaction out of a good logic puzzle. I love his gentle, and easy to read, exploration of the varieties of puzzles and games out there and how he indulges his own nerdiness. This is definitely not a deep dive, but rather a fun exploration of the many types of puzzle activities out there and the people who enjoy them.

This was a fun, engaging read. It‘s easy to write about puzzles and make them sound boring. Jacobs, with his light tone, does a good job of capturing what makes puzzles thrilling. A breezy read, with some not always so breezy puzzles included.
#catsoflitsy

#weirdwords spotted in the tagged book. This was in the section about anagrams. I had never heard of this word but I love its specificity. It hints at conflict and drama in the world of literary scholarship. Imagine the fights that occurred which made this word necessary!

Chorizont: A person who believes the The Odyssey and The Iliad were written by two different people. More generally, someone who challenges the authorship of a work.
@CBee

The Puzzler sees Jacobs tackling various puzzles, from jigsaws to cryptics to sudoku. He talks a bit about their history and tries to find the most challenging of each type. I love puzzles, but am not a fanatic, and found this incredibly engaging and entertaining. Plus, I found a new puzzle to delve into! (Star Battle, if you‘re curious.)

I have read all of Jacobs books and enjoyed them all. I think his first (The Know-it-All) is my personal favorite. This book took his love for puzzles and not only explained them but engaged them too. Reading it lead me to doing a couple of crosswords and sudokus. And overall I am enjoying puzzles more after reading this book. It is a good fun read. I enjoy Jacobs personality and find him easily likable.