Simon & Schuster Mega Crossword Puzzle Book #13 (13) (S&S Mega Crossword Puzzles) Paperback – October 9, 2012

I do one a day. These books tear our easily so I can take it with me.

I liked that the columns and rows were so neatly and precisely laid out.This series is a great collection of puzzles and well worth the investment. There are some puzzle creators, however, who need more thorough editing. It's one thing to be clever and obtuse. It's another thing altogether to have the solution have no connection to the clue. And it's even worse when a clue is SO obscure that only the creator may know the answer. (i.e. "Called to the info booth at Woodstock" * )(* AlanFey)(As in, "Alan Fey... Please report to the information booth. Alan Fey... It's your friend, man. It's a bummer... please...") ;-)

Crossword puzzles are proven to improve brain function, memory, and knowledge. It's like a Jeopardy round on paper with subjects like: geography, literature, history, science, sports, movies, tv, food, politics, pop culture, etc. There's also the satisfaction of finishing one (answers are in the back just in case!) Each book has 300 puzzles, keeping you busy every day for nearly a year. I've ordered 22 of them over the years. True story.

It’s so practical to be able to pull out individual, or clumps of, puzzles. Whoever thought of this is a genius, and it’s such a simple solution. I have been buying these for about 4 years, and I’ve gone through about 3 a year. Different levels of complexity are included, but the majority are the right combination of challenge and fun.

For me the joy for doing a Simon-Schuster puzzle is from that the puzzle title reveals itself bit-by-bit. Sometimes the themes are so nicely hidden that even after the grid is filled only by looking back at the title (and thinking hard) does one know what the theme is about. This kind of joy is totally different from what the NYT puzzles can offer. I hope there are more Sunday-sized, and less theme-less ones. There are some serious editorial errors that should not happen, say the circles in the puzzles #2 and #35.

We do these puzzles daily after canceling newspaper delivery. Start out easy and get harder as you progress through the book.

Challenging but able to complete. My husband love them an i will be purchasing more.

Puzzles for every different skill level. I love doing them!