Author: A.J. Jacobs
Title: The Puzzler: One Man’s Quest to Solve the Most Baffling Puzzles Ever, from Crosswords to Jigsaws to the Meaning of Life
Narrator: Greg Pliska
Previously Read By the Same Author:
- The Know-It-All: One Man’s Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World
- The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible
- It’s All Relative: Adventures Up and Down the World’s Family Tree
Publication Info: Books on Tape, 2022 
Summary/Review:
A.J. Jacobs, an entertainingly geeky writer and journalist with a penchant for immersing himself deeply into his topic of research, takes on the topic of puzzles. Each chapter investigates the history and playing style of a different kind of puzzle including crosswords, Rubik’s Cubes, jigsaws, mazes, Sudoku and KenKen, chess problems, riddles, puzzle boxes, and scavenger hunts.
Jacobs did a lot of work for this book during the isolation period of the COVID pandemic which is appropriate as the need to pass the time while staying at home lead to an increased interest in puzzles among the general public. Jacobs interviews a number of puzzle creators (such as New York Times crossword editor Will Shortz) and some of the world’s greatest puzzle solvers. He also attends competitions, most memorably when he brings his family to Spain to represent the United States in an international jigsaw puzzle competition.
Each chapter includes a sampling of puzzles for the reader to try out themselves. For the audiobook, Jacobs provides some clever alternates to the more visually-oriented styles of puzzles. I never considered myself a diehard puzzler, although I do enjoy them from time to time, but I found this a fun and entertaining book that stoked my interest in doing more puzzling.
Rating: ***
Panorama of the Mountains 