My crossword obsession has fully morphed with my desire to read and review books, so you’re about to get another review of a puzzle book. One of my goals for this year was to complete three puzzle books, so I’m already two-thirds of the way there…I may need to adjust! Today’s puzzle book of choice is Puzzmo Crossword Puzzles Volume 1. It contains 40 crossword puzzles from the Puzzmo team, plus a handful of visual logic puzzles and chess problems based on Puzzmo’s various daily games.
Puzzmo is an online daily puzzle site. If you’re a daily New York Times player (Connections, Wordle, Strands, the Mini, etc.), Puzzmo is right up your alley. The site offers a daily midi-sized puzzle, chess puzzles, and plenty of unique puzzles. I’m partial to Typeshift and Flipart, myself. But what I like most about Puzzmo is the Cross|word, the site’s daily crossword puzzle. Puzzmo Crossword Puzzles Volume 1 collects 30 previously published puzzles and 10 book exclusives. The nice part about Puzzmo’s approach is that the puzzles retain the constructor’s voice instead of diluting it to serve an arbitrary standard. This means you’ll find fun references from each puzzle-maker’s interests, culture, and personality embedded in the clues and answers.
There’s a lot of good to be had in Puzzmo Crossword Puzzles Volume 1. The 40 crosswords are obviously a big draw, but wait! There’s more! The Puzzmo team has also converted two of the platform’s online puzzles into pen-and-paper puzzles. “Flipart” and “Really Bad Chess” get the physical treatment here, and they’re delightful plays on the online originals. I loved the chess puzzles in the book because they felt attainable, whereas online “Really Bad Chess” makes me feel like a big dumb-dumb.
For solvers who need a little help, the book also contains a QR code that links to hints. The printed puzzles have helpful touches to nudge you in the right direction. For example, answers containing multiple words have handy bolded bars indicating when one word ends and another begins.
One last positive: the book comes in packs of two. I gave my spare copy to a friend. She said “Thank you” and never mentioned it again. I guess what I’m saying is you might be able to find a free copy somewhere in a Chicago trash can!
My only small, hyper-specific gripe is that 75% of the puzzles in the book were already published on Puzzmo. Because I do the Cross|word every day, all of those were familiar to me. Sure, I had forgotten a bunch of them, but they started to come back to me as I worked my way through. This is a personal issue, and it obviously won’t apply to anyone who isn’t already a daily Puzzmo solver.
Puzzmo Crossword Puzzles Volume 1 will please puzzlers of all sorts. Beginners may particularly enjoy the more accessible crosswords, which are far easier than grids from other publications.
Coming Soon: Quill To Live Qrossword Puzzles
My initial interest in crossword puzzles started a few years ago when I joined a league with some friends and acquaintances (who quickly turned into enemies when they discovered I could best them at swift-solving). In recent times, it cascaded into a full-blown passion. I solve daily, but I also make crossword puzzles. I publish them weekly in my newsletter: The New Dork Times.
Soon, I’m going to launch QTL Qrosswords! I’ll publish a weekly puzzle right here on TheQuillToLive.com stuff with sci-fi and fantasy related clues. I don’t have a launch date yet (I’m working on a bank of puzzles before I publish the first one), but keep an eye out in the next month or two!
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