The New York Times Will Shortz's Wittiest, Wackiest Crosswords: 225 Puzzles from the Will Shortz Crossword Collection

Perfect way to keep brain working, or trying!!

Thought these would contain a variety of difficulties, but they are all hard

Nothing is more useless than a easy crossword puzzle. What's the point?This collection contains a variety of crossword styles with comments from Will Shortz on many of them.For me, it was almost just right. There are a few puzzles that are just too tedious, but above-average solvers will enjoy most of these.

Great fun and I am enjoying the book immensely. Two minor qualms, though: (1) sometimes Will Shortz's commentary on the puzzle gives too much of a hint. For instance, in one of his write-ups you are clued in enough that you notice (too early!) that every vowel in the puzzle is the same. This, in turn led me to easily deduce in a later puzzle that a certain vowel was entirely missing from the puzzle. It might have been nicer to have the commentary posted in the back of the book where the answer key is, so that you can go into the puzzle cold. Then again, not every puzzle features a write-up at all...for no reason I can discern. The second minor issue comes from my being a daily solver of the NYTimes crossword, and that is that (2) there is no way to gauge the difficulty level of each puzzle. Experienced solvers know there's a difference between "a Monday puzzle" and "a Saturday puzzle." I'm up for the challenge of a Saturday puzzle, to be sure, but I'd like to know beforehand what my experience will be with this particular puzzle.Minor qualms, to be sure, and I figured both were worth a half-star deduction. Many people would not be bothered in the least by either issue! This is my first Will Shortz book, and I'm certain to buy another one once I finish up with this book.

Since we went full-time work from home, I've missed getting the NYT crossword from the office newspaper. This book soothes that urge. Each has a theme - yay! - and they range from easy to hard. I do wish they had the date published, though, as some discuss current events from that time. They're good fun all-in-all

for that reason I am giving 4 stars

Having a great time with this puzzle book. Some of the puzzles are ultra-clever, some merely thematic, but I dislike doing puzzles with no punch. The first half of the book is like the daily NYT puzzles, last half, like Sundays--maybe Saturdays. Love Will Shorz' comments.

I bought this for my husband, he loves it. It's challenging but not too difficult. Great book!

Enjoyable crosswords to do.

I wish the puzzles were organized by weekday so you had a better idea of the difficulty level. But maybe it's better this way. Good times!

J'ai acheté ce livre cadeau pour mon mari. Imaginez ma déception quand il l'ouvrit et trouva les 10 premiers puzzles manquant! Puzzles 11-26 apparaissent deux fois. De toute évidence, un mauvais contrôle de la qualité de l'éditeur.