Mind-Boggling Word Puzzles

by Martin Gardner, V.G. Myers (Illustrations)

Take your brain for a jog around an entertaining collection of wildly clever twisters, illustrated with zany and delightful drawings. Many play with clues that are numbers, letters, or words. Others use tricky visuals to tease the mind. ALL are favorites of a world-renowned puzzle master--and they're tougher than they look, to provide a really enjoyable challenge. Try this one, just to warm up your wits and whet your puzzle-solving

These letters, when properly understood, stand for a common liquid. Name it.

Or--complete a crossword puzzle by filling blanks with words that mean the opposite of the clues, finish a joke by making up the punch line, and lots more!



1. H to O or H2O, the chemical symbol for water--two atoms of hydrogen combined with one atom of oxygen.

Genres: Words

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Martin Gardner was an American mathematics and science writer specializing in recreational mathematics, but with interests encompassing micromagic, stage magic, literature (especially the writings of Lewis Carroll), philosophy, scientific skepticism, and religion. He wrote the Mathematical Games column in Scientific American from 1956 to 1981, and published over 70 books.

Reviews

[Nandakishore Mridula · Rating 3 out of 5]

I usually love Gardner, his puzzles are fun and quirky;
But this collection, I swear, is more than a little murky!
The quality is uneven, the logic weird and jerky -
It's only due to a few little gems that I won't label this as a turkey.

[Mo · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm a therapist in a nursing home and have been looking for materials to use with my clients. This book has a lot of (mostly) word puzzles that are okay, but not really the right type of materials for my clients. Most of the puzzles are either too abstract or too easy, there didn't seem to be a good middle ground.

[Helen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful book for adults and for bright teens! It includes a few well-known word puzzles, with several new ones! I only disliked that a few puzzles had "tricky" answers, as opposed to answers based on thinking.