Cruciverbalism: A Crossword Fanatic's Guide to Life in the Grid
by Stanley Newman, Mark Lasswell
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Book Summary Information
Author: Mark Lasswell, Stanley NewmanEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Published)
Format: Bargain Price
Published: 2006-11-01
ISBN: N/A
Number of pages: 160
Publisher: Collins
Book Reviews of Cruciverbalism: A Crossword Fanatic's Guide to Life in the Grid
Book Review: An inside look at crossword puzzle constructors and their thought process
Summary: 4 Stars
An interesting book for crossword lovers and fanatics alike!
I've had a strong interest in crossword puzzles for years now and after playing some related word-games, I've recently begun to wonder about the crossword puzzle construction process. So it was with this in mind that my curiosity became tweaked when I saw Newman's book "Cruciverbalism: A Crossword Fanatic's Guide to Life on the Grid", available on amazon.com. So I bought it and its turned out to be a good purchase.
The book in quite short; only 140 pages long and is divided into six chapters.
The first chapter deals with Newman's ongoing 'annoyance' with the late Eugene Maleska editing techniques as Editor of the NY Times Crossword in the 1980s and 90s. I've noticed some other reviewer were somewhat taken aback by this 'assault' on Maleska, but after reading this section, I think I can at least appreciate Newman's point of view. It was Newman's disagreement with Maleska's methods that ultimately lead Newman into his strong affiliation with crossword puzzles.
One chapter deals with the history of crosswords and yet another gives some background as to how Newman got into the crossword puzzle business as a lifetime vocation.
The real meat of the book resided in the three remaining chapters. Here we find several topics of interest...
1.)what puzzle constructors think about when constructing a grid; i.e. the basic rules. What's allowed and what isn't.
2.)100 commonly found 3 and 4 letter words (that are at least 50% vowels) and make up significant number of the short words that surround the main themes.
3.)There is one section called 'Hidden Rules of the Grid' that is an extensive list of the different categories of clues that constructors use when building a puzzle e.g. quips or quotes, foreign words, starters and enders, comparatives, fill in the blanks, plurals, hedgers, rivals...and many more. Each category is accompanied by a brief explanation and examples .
4.)The penultimate chapter discusses several useful tips as how to improve your solving abilities, but only if your intensely interested and willing to spend some time and considerable effort to do it.
5.)And finally, on the last 2 pages there are a couple tips on how to approach the more difficult 'Sunday Stumper' puzzle. With regards to items 1-4 above; I was vaguely aware of them to begin with and not truly surprised to see in this book. However, these last hints were something I'd never considered and would be very useful as an approach to solving harder puzzles.
Conclusion:
Although this book was not exactly what I was looking for, it was enjoyable and interesting to read. I was really looking for some useful ideas as to how to actually construct the physical puzzle itself. The main part of this book deals with how constructors think about tinkering with 'clues' to make an answer range from very easy to 'a revelation in the science of word-play'; and it succeeds famously in this regard.
R.Nicholson
P.S.
In my meager attempts to construct even the simplest puzzle, I became acutely aware of just how hard it is to get even a corner of a puzzle to meld, let alone an entire grid. I've even consulted computer crossword puzzle makers, put in a couple of witty phrases that I want to use as my theme; the result, the program whirled for a long time and in the end came up with nothing usable. So my admiration (and some degree of jealousy as well) has increased for these cruciverbalistic heroes, since my humbling experiment with CW construction.
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