Times Jumbo Crossword Book 3: 60 of the World’s Biggest Puzzles from the Times 2: 03 (The Times Crosswords)

Right sort of clues for interesting puzzles

We're mostly used to New York Times style crosswords, so this sort of crossword collection was a challenging change of pace.There are two major differences that you might find intriguing.First, as a matter of structure, these crosswords aren't as "densely" packed. A horizontal answer might be crossed by two or three vertical answers, but that's it. So, you can't work backwards by using answers in which you are confident to fill out other answers. (In a NYT crossword almost every letter in a horizontal answer is also a letter in a vertical answer, so if you get all of the horizontals in a block you automatically have all of the verticals. That's not how these work.)Second, these crosswords are based much more on general knowledge and straight definitions. They don't have a "theme", and aren't built around puns or doing odd things with the words, (such as, say, leaving out all of the silent "g's" in the answers in a "Silent GNight" crossword.).The upshot is that these crosswords are both easier and harder, depending, I imagine, on what your base of "general knowledge" is. They are certainly, in any event, a fun change of pace.

Have bought so many of these crossword books, really enjoy them. The books are good quality and they have a mix of easy, to puzzling clues. Fav crosswords

Really enjoyable for Times Concise Jumbo Crosswords. A must if you love this sort of puzzle and something to stretch the grey cells!

Love these crossword bpoks. Great brain trainer.

These are quite addictive. I have to ration myself to 1 crossword a day, or I wouldn't get anything else done. I find them challenging and I enjoy getting the old grey matter working. I feel quite a sense of achievement if I manage to complete one!

I enjoy both cryptic and General Knowledge X-words. This is a fine example of the second category, testing knowledge and vocabulary about equally. There are very occasional dubious answers - wrong tense/meaning etc. but this seems to afflict all puzzles now. I find the level of challenge just right and hope and believe that these X-words have helped me to improve.

What can be said about a Crossword Book? Hours of mental strain and annoyance but fun :-)