This book caught my eye while at another branch of the library - always fun to scan shelves that you're not so familiar with. Cruciverbalism is part crossword history, part insider's how-to. It's written by Stanley Newman, a serious crossword fanatic and editor of one of the few nationally syndicated puzzles. Pretty interesting, and lots of tips on how to improve your puzzling. One of my favorites: If the top row has a long word, look for it to contain lots of consonants - since most words start with consonants, the down clues that run off the top line probably do too.
Book 70
2 comments:
That is a good tip, although I've never been great at crosswords. I'm better at the type of puzzles I can figure out without any sort of reference, like math or number puzzles. I bet you're great at them though since you read such a wide variety of literature... :)
Just finished reading "Cruciverbalism" this afternoon. Nice short book, enjoyed the history of crosswords. I've been applying some of the tips when I do crosswords with Ken and have cut a couple minutes off our time. I've also started looking up words whose meaning I don't know.
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