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Title: Mensa Guide to Solving Sudoku: Hundreds of Puzzles Plus Techniques to Help You Crack Them All (Mensa)
ISBN: 1402740115
Author:
Peter Gordon
Frank Longo
Publicate Date: 2006-08-28
Publish: 2006-08-28
List Price: $17.95
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $10.69
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $9.64
Amazon Merchant Price: $12.21
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| Customer Review: |
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1: More than you ever wanted to know about Sudoku
My husband became addicted to Sudoku in Summer 2008 and soon thereafter infected me. We work (individually) on the puzzle published daily in the Cleveland Plain Dealer. This book has a wealth of information about analysis and techniques including some for puzzle situations so rare and exotic they might never be encountered in a lifetime. The explanations are very clear and easy to follow but the book has shortcomings as to format and layout. I would much have preferred to have the explanation of a particular diagram on the same page with the graphic itself rather than having to flip the page back and forth to follow the steps. The book also has hundreds of puzzles to work on, for those for whom once a day is just not enough.
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2: Great tips, so so layout
The tips alone are worth the price of the book, but the layout was a bit disappointing. The puzzles are a bit too small. I like the half page size at least. It would also have been helpful to include a cross reference between some of the more difficult techniques to the puzzles which contain them.
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3: good and bad
I'm with the other people who described the problem with the binding of this book: it's poor. Just like another reviewer, within the first couple of weeks, the binding started to come apart, and I've been handling it carefully to keep pages from coming out, which will begin soon, I fear. And it wasn't through any rough handling on my part: I handle books like precious objects, with a lot of care and respect. The binding STILL failed very quickly.
The content is pretty good, and I'm learning a lot of advanced solving techniques, however I'm noticing that the book is a little short on examples of some of the more advanced patterns, and variations on those patterns. For example, the first end-of-chapter problem in the chapter on Forcing Chains and Grid Coloring had me totally stumped, despite the fact that I knew that one of the variations on the chapter's patterns of XY-Wing, XYZ-Wing, and Turbot Fish had to be present. Finally, I consulted sudopedia.org, and lo, they offered two subtypical examples of XY-Wing, the first of which was covered in the book, the second of which was not. I'd spent perhaps 6 hours staring at that one puzzle, and after reading of subtype two at sudopedia, I spotted the example of it in the puzzle after about 10 seconds!
Basically, I think the book could be improved by having not only solutions for the end of chapter problems, which it has, but also highlighting of the critical pattern in the candidates, at the critical juncture where the special pattern taught in that chapter must be located to enable you to finish the puzzle (without guessing), in case the reader just had too much difficulty finding it, as I did. Also more elaboration on some of the more complex patterns and how to go about searching for them would be useful.
Aside from those few shortcomings, this book is pretty good! I can't say I'm sorry I bought it. But it could be better.
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4: Good Info -- Crappy Book
This is the type of book that one will regularly refer to in order to brush up on very advanced solving techniques. Sadly, the construction of the binding is quite poor and after a short while I had more than a few pages fall out.
Probably should order another copy, but I hate to reward shoddy construction with even more sales.
Probably the best advanced Sudoku puzzle solving reference though; if you buy, treat it more gingerly than you'd think necessary.
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5: my wife is a suduko addict.
I have never knowingly done a seduco myself but my wife is hooked. She says this book has brought her to a new level. Now she is going back and trying the ones she had put aside because they were too hard.
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