HomeSudoku BooksAre You as Smart as You Think?: 150 Original Mathematical, Logical, and Spatial-Visual Puzzles for All Levels of Puzzle Solvers |
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13 of 15 found the following review helpful:
 Superb! Mar 09, 2000
By Michael Michalko
I'm the author of "Thinkertoys" and "Cracking Creativity" and, generally read as many books as I can that relate to thinking. Terry Stickels, in my opinion, is America's Puzzle Master and has produced another great collection of original puzzles. Over the years, I've become a great fan of Terry and the way he makes me think. This book is superb. If you like puzzles, do yourself a favor and buy this book. It's a hoot!
7 of 7 found the following review helpful:
 Good, but not killer puzzles Feb 28, 2001
By Charles Ashbacher
According to my performance in solving these puzzles, the answer to the question in the title is "pretty close." I was able to get many of them after only a few seconds, although admittedly some did stump me. The collection of 150 puzzles are original to the author, but the forms of most are in accordance with many time-honored formulas. Finding the next number in a sequence, starting with a word and changing a single letter at a time to transform it into another word are well-known methods of creating puzzles. Other classic problems are those involving letters placed in an unusual form in order to suggest a longer message and drawing the minimal number of lines so that all dots in a figure are on a line.
The book is split into two sections, warm-ups and killers, with the latter advertised as being the hardest imaginable. That goal is not achieved. Granted, the killer puzzles are harder, but quite frankly some of them are almost obvious. For example, the message in
DAY DAY DAY DAY DAY
CAST CAST CAST CAST
is not difficult to see. Another example is to find the general formula for the terms of the infinite sequence
3, 11, 19, 27, 35, 43, 51, 59, 67, . . .
Certainly not what I would envision as being examples of killer puzzles. No problem requires more than basic algebra and some require knowledge of different bases of enumeration. For some, simply thinking about them will do the trick.
While I did enjoy reading and working through the puzzles, the level of difficulty appeared to me to be overstated. That is why I gave it four stars rather than five.
7 of 7 found the following review helpful:
How does he do it? Mar 06, 2000
My whole family looks forward to Terry Stickel's puzzles and frame games each Sunday in USA Weekend. So when we read that he just published another book -- we picked one up that day. These puzzles are the most original and fun and challenging ever.....thanks, Terry Stickels....keep them coming!
6 of 6 found the following review helpful:
 Not as original as I'd expected May 10, 2001
I must admit I expected something special from a couple of rave reviews that I read, but this is really just a compilation of number reasoning tests with some general knowledge and some Dingbats thrown in. The new Martin Gardner? Definitely not, based on this collection, at least. A collection of 150 original puzzles? Depends what you mean by 'original'. I recognised several, for style if not for precise content, and would challenge some of the puzzle answers too. Average, hence 3 stars.
7 of 8 found the following review helpful:
Fantastic book Mar 20, 2000
By Bill Karrow
I like to think I am fairly intelligent, and Mr. Stickels book really made me feel inadequate. I love a challenge and this book is the ultimate. This book should be read by anyone who thinks they are the stuff. I have never seen anything like it. Blows MENSA away. Way to go Terry, and keep up the good work.
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