Think you have a logical mind, try this (The Times Su Doku - Wayne Gould)

Member Name: ManicMorFF

Product:	The Times Su Doku - Wayne Gould
Date:	30/05/09 (76 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A myriad of variations, some very challenging

Disadvantages: If you don't have an attention span, forget it

Now, before I begin I'll state for the record that I love Su Doku, or more commonly Sudoku, it' my kind of puzzle. I like logic-based puzzles that require a bit of brainpower to solve. I feel a bit of challenge in them, against myself, to see how quikly I can solve them.

For anyone that is not familiar with Sudoku puzzles, here's a brief overview:

The puzzle presents itself as a grid of squares, nine rows by nine columns with the whole thing sub-divided into nine 3 x 3 squares.

The object of the puzzle is that you have to fill in all the cells with the numbers 1 to 9. The catch is that you cannot repeat a number in any row, column or 3 x 3 box. Some numbers already pre-filled in the cells to get you started.

There are some simple techniques to getting you started and as you get more proficient, you will start to work out other, more complex methods of determining the numbers.

The Times newspaper carried this type of puzzle from the early days after making its way across from Japan. This particular book is a collection of puzzles from the Times' compiler Wayne Gould. Wayne is apparently an ex-High Court judge that does this for a living now. It's the first of a series of books of Sudoku puzzles from the Times. When I say series, they're not sequential so you can get any or all of them in any order you want.

I particularly like the Times puzzles because I believe they are hand-compiled (rather then computer generated) which adds another little dimension to it if you're a seasoned puzzler. So you tend to start off with a specific pattern of the pre-completed numbers and as you complete the puzzles you think 'aha, clever'.

These books suit both beginners and seasoned Sudoku puzzlers as they are all split into four sections of difficulty; mild, easy, hard and fiendish, giving the novice somewhere to start and work up from, and still keep the gurus happy. There are a total of 100 puzzles in each book and it's a handy, amall novel size, so easy to carry about. Under a fiver each from Amazon at time of writing.

If you like a logical challenge, this kind of puzzle is right up your street, or column, or row.

Summary: Puzzling delight