World's Toughest Word Puzzles - 54

Popcorn for your brainThe word games in this book are designed to be accessible in the short term, and challenging in the long term. Your brain's appetite will initially be whetted by the easy puzzles in the first 12 chapters (even there, though, a perfect score is almost impossible unless you really put in the work). As you work your way up to the last few chapters, getting more than 50% of the words you are tasked with finding becomes fiendishly difficult, and it's perfectly understandable if you need multiple breaks, the assistance of a friend, or the assistance of a dictionary or thesaurus.Easy format to understandThe format of the word puzzles in this book is not very complex at all. By the time you're done with the first chapter, you will be ready to solve anything the book throws at you There is another step function you can expect in Chapter 11, where things get harder, but the abundance of time you enjoy, and of the solutions provided in the book (where answers are segregated by word length) will help you tackle anything thrown at you.Easy to start solving, impossible to 100%Any solver of any age can start with the first 50% of any of the puzzles in this book, but you will need to eat and digest every dictionary ever written to get everything correct.Word Games for DaysThink of this book like an onion. On the surface layer, you have a few puzzles that you can solve fairly quickly. Even in the initial chapters, though, there will always be that one pesky word that you just can't guess. And as you go deeper down the rabbit hole, you will need a diary just to write all your guesses in, and make sure that you have found every single word of a given length. If this was an app, it would get a five star rating for replay value. And then you'd take off one star for occasional extreme frustration, because you just can't guess what you need to.Scrabble game and strategy builderScrabble is the most popular board game involving words and wordplay and vocabulary in English. Most people get better at Scrabble by playing games of Scrabble, but this book offers an alternative method to getting better at the tiles and Double Words. All you need is to read through this book steadily and slowly. The first few chapters offer simpler puzzles, where you have to find a few words that can be made from a given set of letters (just like you would need to, given a Scrabble rack in real life). This book, however, ramps up steadily in difficulty. By the time you get to the final few chapters, you will be solving giant lists of word puzzles, and the ability to make sure you do not miss a single word of a given length, however obscure, and even if it comes at the end of a really long list of words, will help you do better in the real Scrabble world, where spotting that cleverly placed Bingo could net you 50 extra points and bragging rights for a long time (and the envy of your friends).Word Puzzles to solve at any timeEach puzzle in this book has a simple problem statement, succinctly stated in one or two lines. This means that, once you're working on a given puzzle inside a particular chapter, you can go out, take a break, travel, eat, and still have the clue in your mind. You don't even need this book with you when you're trying to solve the puzzle; you just need it when it's time to check the answers. Complete portability Vocabulary builder for adults and childrenThere is no real age limit on those who read this book. All you need is time, curiosity, and either a strong English vocabulary or a nice thick dictionary (or Google, given that we live in the 21st century). You will be able to exercise your current word gaming skills, and you are also guaranteed to learn many new words (at least 20% of the words in our list are rare Scrabble dictionary words that are not in common English use). All in all, you will be both educated and entertained.