So You Think You're Smart: 150 Fun and Challenging Brain Teasers

by Pat Battaglia

So You Think You're Smart is a delightful book of brain games that the entire family can enjoy. All games are concise, uncomplicated and, most of all, a lot of fun. They are about ordinary words and things that everybody knows about so only common knowledge and a bit of resourcefulness are needed to solve them. The games are only one of the fun features. All answers are encrypted! Each is given on the same page as the game, but is printed upside-down and backward - as in a mirror image. To ensure that they cannot be accidentally read, the answers are further obscured by using italics and a reduced size type. A mirror is needed to reveal the answers. So You Think You're Smart has proven popularity. It is now in its 19th printing.

96 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1988

About the author

Pat has enjoyed brain games from the time he was a youngster. But not ordinary brain games. He was only intrigued by brain teasers that were fun, the type that are clever and have answers that, after being discovered, seemed practically obvious. Not finding many puzzles that fit this category, Pat began devising his own unique brand of word games. He started a newspaper puzzle column and it has been in syndication for over 25 years.

He expanded his avocation by writing books with the brain games accumulated from his columns. Not content to have cleverness only in his word games, he devised other unique features for his books. They include outrageous techniques to ensure the answers are not seem accidentally, a witty scoring method for individual puzzles and a tongue-in-cheek scheme to determining reader brain power.

Pat’s first book, So You Think You’re Smart, 150 Fun and Challenging Brain Teasers became an immediate best seller for now-defunct Tab Books, Inc. He followed that success with three other books of teasing titles:
Are You Smart, or What?, A Bizarre Book of Games & Fun for Everyone
If You’re So Smart, Prove It! Amusing Word Games For All Ages
Smart Is as Smart Does, Brain Games to Reveal the Genius in You.

Pat is a former rocket scientist and is known as Dr. Fun when appearing in costume while entertaining audiences with his amusing word games.

His books have received several endorsements including those from Betty White, Jeff Foxworthy, fellow puzzle author Terry Stickels and MENSA (The High I.Q. Society).

His latest book is The Cleverest Brain Games on the Planet with Surprising Answers.

Reviews

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I only had about an hour to spend with this, unfortunately... I would have had many hours of fun solving the puzzles. They vary in type and in difficulty, but most are not too difficult for most adults, and some would definitely be solvable by younger children with patience. If you can get a copy, I do recommend it for fans of word-play, logic puzzles, and the like. I will look for more by the author.

[Maurizio Codogno · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ogni tanto mi capitano tra le mani libri di "indovinelli per la mente" - non saprei come tradurre correttamente "brain teasers". Io me li guardo senza perderci troppo tempo, perché non si sa mai: a volte qualche problema davvero interessante e poco noto ci scappa sempre. Beh, non è questo il caso, purtroppo.

Non ho nulla contro il signor Battaglia, che fece il suo bel libretto e l'ha anche fatto bene: aiutini e risposte sono nel testo subito dopo i problemi, ma i primi sono scritti al rovescio e le seconde specchiati. Per di più le risposte sono stampate con un font corsivo, per di più: garantisco che le risposte si possono leggere anche senza andare davanti a uno specchio come suggerito dall'autore - che ricorda anche che nella peggiore delle ipotesi ci si può chiudere in bagno - ma è assolutamente impossibile leggerle "per sbaglio" il testo. Il guaio è che la maggior parte dei 150 problemi del libro sono linguistici, se non addirittura geografici ("quanti sono gli stati USA il cui nome termina con la lettera A?"), il che lo rende di poco interesse per chi come me l'inglese lo capisce ma non è certo un madrelingua.

Fortunatamente almeno il libro è breve :-)