Simon & Schuster Mega Crossword Puzzle Book #8 (8) (S&S Mega Crossword Puzzles) Paperback – June 15, 2010

Crossword puzzles are proven to improve brain function, memory, and knowledge. It's like a Jeopardy round on paper with subjects like: geography, literature, history, science, sports, movies, tv, food, politics, pop culture, etc. There's also the satisfaction of finishing one (answers are in the back just in case!) Each book has 300 puzzles, keeping you busy every day for nearly a year. I've ordered 22 of them over the years. True story.

These books are all great . Puzzles are not too hard. I tear out the pages to put on a clipboard and keep it in the bathroom. Been using these books for years. I recommend them.

I've ordered 9 of this series and like them very much. A good variety of themes (and some are un-themed) with the right amount of straight-up knowledge clues and funny or punny clues. For the most part they're well-edited and have few mistakes. I like the perforated pages because I tear them out and put them on a light-weight acrylic clipboard and sit on the sofa (or propped up in bed - good for insomnia). The book is very big, so it would be difficult to do these without tearing them out. The only problem I've had is that sometimes the perforations are a little defective and a few of the pages won't rip out cleanly, so I have to get out my x-acto knife. In Book #8 especially, the perforations were so close to the edge of the puzzle that a few pages had little pieces ripped off of the clues and the answer grid when torn out. Also, the puzzles go from front to back, easier to harder, and I wish they made the same type of big book with only hard puzzles. After doing crosswords for years, the easy ones are kind of boring. The only book in this series that I couldn't use and had to give away was #1, where the puzzles were printed in a good-sized font, but the answer pages were in such a tiny font that I couldn't read them without a magnifying glass! I gave it to someone younger who had much better eyesight :) But maybe Book #1 has been reprinted and they fixed that problem, so perhaps it's o.k. now?

I buy my wife puzzle books in this series and she thoroughly enjoys them. They are challenging and excellent value. I occasionally get to answer a few questions myself, usually in the pop music and geography questions. She loves the fact that the pages are perferated so instead of having a book full of answered puzzles, she can tear them out and disguard the ones she has finished. We still have a few more in the series to collect and I can see that we will be taking at least one book away on holiday with us to keep us company on the long flights.

This a great series of crossword books.

very challenging. this is my third book. wish the pages came out easier.

I love all of the Mega crossword books. The puzzles are not easy which keeps my brain in gear. Lots of puns. The only drawback is the use of sports, television and other popular culture information. When that happens, i let myself look at the answers. lol

Yes, i won't run out of puzzles to do everyday. But some of them are undoable for me when they rely on names of TV stars, movie heroes etc who may be currently popular but are totally unknown to me at the age of 85. I prefer words and puns which trick the brain. So only 4 stars.