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House of Leaves
by Mark Z. Danielewski
Amazon Price: $13.57
Customer Reviews:
» I really wanted to like this book. All the post-modern literary devices appeal to me, and I was looking forward to the creative typesetting, the story of Johnny Truant told in footnotes, all of it. I am the kind of reader who often finds myself up til the wee hours when I get engrossed in a book. I thought House of Leaves had the potential to be one of those books.
But as it turned out, all this book ever did was put me to sleep. Part of the problem was that the literary devices in this case really got in the way of the story. Being diverted from the narrative of the "main" story by a three-page footnote is disruptive to say the least. And when it happens every chapter, it just starts to get annoying. But the bigger problem for me was that I fundamentally didn't care about any of these characters. Johnny Truant was a compulsive liar with a crush on a stripper. Whoo-hoo. Zampano was hard for me to relate to, since more than half of his "work" was nothing more than fictional scholarly articles. The Navidsons, if we are to believe they were anything but a fiction created by Zampano, were shallow, self-absorbed people who I really couldn't feel much sympathy for. The only characters I ever cared about at all were Johnny's institutionalized mother, and Jed. Unfortunately, these characters only had small parts in the book. About halfway through the story (which was way earlier than halfway through the book), I started skipping the footnotes altogether. I really couldn't get into Johnny's story, because I just didn't care about him. All I wanted was to have the small satisfaction of finding out the end of the story about the house (it was disappointing), and then the greater satisfaction of returning this book to the library. I'm glad to be rid of it, and even more glad that I didn't waste any money on it.
» In brief: this book's structure is totally derivative of Kenneth Patchen's "Sleepers Awake" and "Journal of Albion Moonlight." It is as compelling as Stephen King in the sense that it is a satisfactory horror novel and there is a bit more depth to it than what one would expect from the genre. What annoyed me the most about the book wasn't the actual story or storytelling, but the length and the fact that a lot of people seemed to think that his surrealist construction of the book was in some way original.
» I picked this up without hearing any reviews of it. It was interesting but I quickly realized that Johnny was not an interesting character. I did like the story about the house, but it was layered in so much other fluff that you definitely lost the continuity of horror that should have been there.
By the end I was exhausted and sick of the story. The pacing felt sonorous and I was skipping or skimming huge chunks just to get to the next section.
The post-modern stuff worked in some places, but I had a hard time seeing what the significance of its use was in several places. Done properly it should have contributed to the sense of disjointedness and horror, but it was so prevalent in the text that it lost much of its umph.
Still I'd recommend it if you're looking for some interesting reading.
» House of Leaves is, arguably, Danielewski's greatest and most defining work to date. It is hard to sum up what HoL (as it is known to many fans) is, but it is most definitely not the typical book.
The premise of Danielewski's work is that a young man, Johnny Truant, finds an unpublished manuscript analyzing a film, that does not exist, about a house which exhibits preternatural phenomena. But that is about where the concrete facts of the work end, and even those facts are up for debate. Danielewski structured his work, and characters, in such a way that readers now theorize that Johnny was a child from the nonexistent film, that Johnny's mother was actually the man whom he recovered the manuscript from, that the house was actually a being that made the story up, and a whole host of other ideas that will not make sense until you read the work.
Though this work is unconventional and very long it is quite worth the investment of time and money. It goes places where few works are able to go and exists almost in its own genre. Many describe this work as a horror, yet it does not fit the typical requirements for a horror novel. It is, most definitely horrifying though, and many readers have experienced minor obsessions and strange feelings (such as unease in the dark, finding references to the book in day-to-day life, and nightmares) while reading the book; it is this which makes the book fall within the horror genre. Yet the book has also inspired many people, such as one user of the fan forum who based her PhD thesis on Danielewski's works.
When it comes down to it, I strongly recommend this book. Though it may, at times, be uncomfortable to read, it also brings forward thoughts and fears, it can begin a revealing process of self-analysis and understanding; but most importantly it can, and will, change you, and so few books can claim that.
» I heard a lot of people declare this book the scariest thing they'd ever read, and as a fan of horror - particularly of evil architecture - I was interested. I was sort of surprised to find that to me, anyway, this novel read a lot more like a moderately amusing, if quite tedious at times, satire on the academic ivory tower.
I think this book has the skeleton of a really terrifying horror story; I'd love to see The Navidson Record or read a novelization of it. Even so, given the way House of Leaves is written, I can't see it as scary in the least. I was an English major for far too many years and actually quite enjoy reading analytical articles, but it's not the same as reading the actual work. I know a lot of people who think The Haunting of Hill House is frightening, but I've never heard of anyone who woke up in a cold sweat because they read a critical analysis of the story. I think the essence of horror is getting the reader so engrossed in the story that they forget it's a story at all, but House of Leaves goes to great lengths to ensure that you never get drawn into the action for too long at a time; every time the summary of The Navidson Record starts to build up tension, it ends up getting diffused by a digression into the mythology of echoes and an analysis of their use in the story or some such thing. Even when Zampano, the writer, doesn't interrupt the flow, the editor Johnny will see fit to insert a 2-3 page footnote about his paranoia and nightmares and graphic sexual encounters. While Johnny's story was probably intended to be unnerving as well, I found it extremely repetitive and rarely effective. On top of everything else, we are told right off the bat that The Navidson Record doesn't actually exist (and even if it did, the blind Zampano couldn't have seen it anyway) and are reminded of this several times throughout the story.
At first House of Leaves got on my nerves because I felt it was trying entirely too hard; it's difficult to take a book seriously when it's doing the equivalent of jumping up and down, flapping its covers and shouting "Look at me! See how postmodern I am? Watch me deconstruct myself!" Eventually, though, I realized that it worked beautifully as satire on the academic world - given that The Navidson Record does not actually exist within the novel, we can see that Zampano didn't even bother to write his story; he evidently felt that analyzing a work was more important than actually producing it in the first place. The painstakingly cited references are all made up to suit the writer's convenience, as are the quotes themselves; difficult passages tend to be conveniently lost. The editor is hardly qualified for the job; in fact, he's frequently high and has a tendency to take Zampano's work and subvert it into his own autobiographical ramblings. Then, of course, there's the fact that this is obviously the type of novel to get a lot of scholarship; Danielewski has it set up so that actual academics will be writing actual articles about an article with a made-up premise and forged references. All these potshots at academia are actually really funny when you think about it, and it made the whole thing click for me fairly well. There are still parts that go on too long, and I could have done without the last hundred pages (aside from maybe the letters from Johnny's mother), but the work felt much more cohesive and much more enjoyable from that perspective.
I still think House of Leaves is a fairly impressive example of postmodern incoherency, but like most entries in the genre, it certainly lends itself to interpretation if you care to do so. The Navidson Record events are some of the most wonderfully evocative horror sequences I've read in a very long time, and like I said, if it were a separate work, I'd buy it in a heartbeat. I'm content to just borrow House of Leaves.
Will Shortz Presents The Little Black Book of Sudoku: 400 Puzzles (Will Short...
Amazon Price: $10.36
Customer Reviews:
» The format gets an A+ for me -- compact book with lots of room to write, and the glossy paper erases easily, which is great.
My only quibbles - the difficulty level is not consistent. Some of the moderate puzzles are walkoff easy, and some are really miserably hard. And my other quibble really is a quibble... I miss the symmetric format of the starting squares, which is customary with Sudoku.
So the format gets five stars from me, and the content three, and overall I guess that averages out to four stars!
» The book is divided into ability sections. There is plenty of room to write the numbers with white space around the puzzle to make notes. It provides hours of challenge!
» There are many ways to find Sudoku puzzles; but, what is unique about this book of puzzles is that it is a spiral notebook. Much easier to open the pages flat to do the puzzles. Other bound books must be held open by one hand while marking with the other. This book lies flat and is much easier to use.
» Nice book of sudoku.
It has 4 sections of 100 puzzles.(levels of challenge).
-Light (serious sudokuers will fisnish in one day)
-Moderate (Nice n easy )
-Hard (relaxing)
-Hardest (brain storm)
The book has a very nice spiral design .
Small and easy to carry. Keeps busy when you are commuting to work ..
It took me 3 weeks to finish on an easy pace.
Best Sudoku book I had so far..
There are 400 puzzles inside but 2 of them are same so you actually get to resolve 399.
» I have to say this is a great little book. I love the fact that it is spiral bound, plus the high-quality paper it is written on is great for erasures. I recently ordered about five sudoku books from Amazon and this is, by far, my favorite. Love Will's books.
Sudoku: Medium to Hard
by Zachary Pitkow
Amazon Price: $6.95
Customer Reviews:
» Please let me know if this item has been shipped back. it was never received.
Lisa
» This is a perfect sudoku book for traveling. It is lightweight and easy to use with the spiral binding. My travel schedule requires 100+K miles per year. This book has lasted through 9 months of travel and kept me entertained.
The book has three levels. The medium is challenging but not difficult for the experienced sudoku fan. The hard puzzles are a mixture, with some only taking me ten minutes while others took me hours.
I would highly recommend this sudoku book.
» i really liked this one because
1) it's not big and bulky - an carry it with you and not get bored anywhere (metro/subway, doctor's appointment, airport, whatever)
2) it's on a spiral - not a book-form, so you don't have to bend the pages to see better. It's easy to write on while holding. and once you're done with both sides, it's easy to rip out. or yo can rip out and just carry and sheet or share with somebody.
3) as someone who's already done the "easy" levels of sudoku, i really liked that it starts at the medium level and moves up. and no those super hard ones toward the end are not impossible.
» I'm a beginner Sudoku player, but this little book is a good one. It is small and handy with the spiral spine. I also like that the answers are there, it keeps me interested in continuing when I am stumped on a puzzle. Good value & great fun.
» the book is too tiny for me to use. It would fit in a pocket, but there's no room to fill in possibilities, so it's not useful for the way I solve Sudoku.
Mensa Guide to Solving Sudoku: Hundreds of Puzzles Plus Techniques to Help Yo...
by Peter Gordon, Frank Longo
Amazon Price: $12.21
Customer Reviews:
» This is the type of book that one will regularly refer to in order to brush up on very advanced solving techniques. Sadly, the construction of the binding is quite poor and after a short while I had more than a few pages fall out.
Probably should order another copy, but I hate to reward shoddy construction with even more sales.
Probably the best advanced Sudoku puzzle solving reference though; if you buy, treat it more gingerly than you'd think necessary.
» I have never knowingly done a seduco myself but my wife is hooked. She says this book has brought her to a new level. Now she is going back and trying the ones she had put aside because they were too hard.
» After solving many puzzles, I found 3 star and lower puzzles too easy, but I occasionally came across a 4 star puzzle that I could not solve without guessing. This book gives you multiple advanced solving strategies that should allow you to solve any "solvable" puzzle. I was disappointed to learn from the author of this book that some puzzles that indeed have one unique solution can only be solved by guessing. The 798 puzzles in this book, however, are guaranteed by the author to be solvable without guessing. So far, I have found this to be true. Hence, I have spent long hours on some of the puzzles with ultimate success without the fear that I am simply wasting my time. I agree with other reviewers that the grids are too small for the amount of note taking that is required to solve them, so I have been transcribing the puzzles onto larger photocopied grids. This strategy also saves the puzzles for another solver or for me at another time.
» This book gets five stars because it is the first book I found that actually helped me get better at working hard puzzles (and I was no slouch before I got this). I see some reviewers complaining about the puzzles being smaller than many books, which is true, but this book has over 700 puzzles in it. I'll take more puzzles any day.
» The information contained in this book is informative and useful to the Sudoku solver, but the construction quality of this book leaves a little to be desired.
Within 2 days of receiving this book and working puzzles in it, pages came loose from the binding and started falling out. The binding on this book is terrible. If you want this book, use extreme care handling it otherwise the pages will fall out.
The information is good, worth 5 stars. But the poor quality of the binding knocks 2 stars off.
An Introduction to Language
by Victoria Fromkin, Robert Rodman, Nina Hyams
Amazon Price:
Customer Reviews:
» thank you!! i saved so much money on my textbooks!! item was as promised!! would recommend to friends. Thanks again!!
» The book came very quickly. The book's condition was very good. I really appreciate it.
» I had to buy this book for school, but I actually enjoyed it. I don't usually read text books, but this was one worth reading. Very interesting facts, and really helps to spark interest about language.
» I LIKE THE BOOK BECAUSE IT HELPED ME A LOT IN MY CLASS... IT HAVE A LOT OF INFORMATION THAT IS VERY USEFUL...
» This is, hands down, the best book to take a rank beginner and introduce him or her to the science of linguistics. The price, however, has placed it out of reach of my introductory courses in linguistics. It's sad that such an important volume has become unavailable as a text in many courses.
Better Together: What on Earth Are We Here For?
Amazon Price:
Customer Reviews:
Will Shortz Presents Ferocious Sudoku: 200 Hard Puzzles (Will Shortz Presents)
by Will Shortz
Amazon Price: $6.95
Customer Reviews:
» This book gives you 100 "difficult" puzzles and 100 "very challenging" puzzles. Although there's no official grading system for Sudoku puzzles, I've done about half the puzzles in this book and I would say those descriptions are accurate. The "difficult" puzzles are hard enough to make me think but not so hard that I've had to use notations to solve them, and the "very challenging" puzzles usually require me to make notations and I've even gotten hung up on a couple of them.
The book is big enough so that the puzzles can be easily read yet small enough that it will fit in your laptop case. It's also very fairly priced for the number of puzzles you get.
» These puzzles aren't as hard as I had hoped, but are better than most books. Well worth it, and will pass the time as desired.
Sudoku Easy to Hard Presented by Will Shortz, Volume 3: 100 Wordless Crosswor...
by Will Shortz
Amazon Price: $6.95
Customer Reviews:
» You have to think so it's a good thing and something to entertain and or keep you occupied especially on long trips.
» This is one of the first books I tried when first learning to do Sudoku puzzles. It is an excellent one, with good sized puzzles, somewhat difficult for a novice, but that is the challenge! I would definitely recommend it!
» This is an entertaining book. Shortz is the best when it comes to puzzles of any type. I eagerly await future books.
» Will Short is our family's favorite author on Sudoku's. This series of books from him is the best for taking in the car, etc. as it's compact yet the puzzles are big enough for writing.
» It is a good size book. I have bought a smaller book of sudoku, and gets too messy when you write numbers around the square.
New York Post Fiendish Sudoku: The Official Utterly Addictive Number-Placing ...
by Wayne Gould
Amazon Price: $6.95
Customer Reviews:
» I have to admit that I do love Wayne Gould's puzzles, which is why I bought this book sight unseen. Being an addict of very difficult sudoku (or "Su Doku", as he calls them), I looked forward to his worst. This is written after solving the first half.
Mr. Gould is of the solving school that thinks marking up the puzzle gets in the way of good solving. He challenges the solver to find his carefully hidden clues, all of which can be found without marking up -- if you have a better memory for numbers than I have. This is great fun, and I appreciate and enjoy the challenge. The downside is that for people who like REALLY hard (grid coloring, logic chains), these puzzles are not fiendishly hard.
I highly recommend this book to those who are trying to learn how to solve very difficult puzzles that can be solved by traditional techniques. It is filled with interesting and varied puzzles, and you will find some much harder than others because they test different solving methods. For an advanced solver, it is certainly much more fun than the average book.
» If you want challenge you should get this one. It's real fiendish! However, among the puzzles in the book there are some that are harder and some are a little easier... but still fiendish. I love it. I hope I will be able to find another one this good when I'm done with this one.
» I purchased the book for my friend who easily completed puzzles categorized as difficult in booklets found at supermarkets and discount stores. There were never enough difficult puzzles to keep her busy or challenged so much of each booklet was useless. She is delighted with this sudoku booklet and while she can complete the puzzels it does take some time and provides an adequate challenge. She is happy and I am too! Well worth the price.
» Went through various books that were supposed to be hard, but they don't hold a candle to this book. While some books have a few puzzles that require a good deal of thought, all the puzzles in this book require a great deal of thought...
If you are just starting out I would recommend one of his New York Post books. If you have a problem working 5 star puzzles online then this book may be a little much.... but if you want a real challenge this book is for you! And after you've worked one... you will feel the rush!
Dear Mr. Gould, Can we have a second fiendish book? Please!
» This is the first Su Doku I've found that I cannnot do. Says it is intuitive, well, as far as I can tell it's just plain hard. I've not been able to finish one all the way with out a peek for at least 2 answers. Unless you are really into this and want to spend hours, do not waste your time or money.
Killer Sudoku 1: The Deadly New Dimension
by Collins Uk Staff
Amazon Price: $7.95
Customer Reviews:
» I encountered Killer Sudoku in a Will Shortz sudoku variants book and became hooked on it, and this is a great book of it. It allows you to move between a variety of solving techniques taken from both regular Sudoku and Kakuro. The puzzles here come in a good variety of solving difficulty, with enough easy ones for you to practice your techniques on, and enough challenging ones that you won't get bored.
» I ran into Killer Sudoku accidentally, and became hooked ever since. The (simple addition and subtraction) math involved adds a new dimension to the puzzle. Unlike the standard Sudoku, Killer Sudoku puzzles have more twists and surprises waiting to be explored. The more difficult puzzles in this book are very satisfactory in harboring many pleasant and exciting ones.
The books contain 110 puzzles of 5 levels. When you advance to the last two level, your skill and fun are elevated as well. I guess after you mastered the game, you may want to get books with only difficult ones (and they should be so published). One nice thing about this book is that the puzzles seem to have been tested, and there is a 'par' time for each one of them. For easy one the pars are ten to 20 minutes, and the hardest ones up to 90 minutes. These par times are pretty good in that I tended to exceed them in the beginning, but after I have advanced to high levels and came back to do some easier ones that I skipped I often beat the par. The time competition factor also is a way to enjoy the easy ones.
Highly recommended for going through the levels and mastering the game. If you are looking only for tough Killer Sudoku books, this one contains about 20 very good ones.
» If your bored of Sudoku and not finding the standard puzzles challenging you need to try these out. The page layout of this book is good there is ample room to write your number combinations and there are suggested times for each puzzle. The paper used in the book is softer but stands up fine to an eraser.
» I do enjoy regular Sudoku. But there are a couple of problems with it. First, while it uses numbers, it in no way uses the properties of numbers. Second, the level of effort to solve such puzzles is generally uneven; you may get a few numbers early, but then it gets very tough, and soon after that it is easy again. When it is tough, you may have to write down possible values in a square or guess, and that's unsatisfying compared to being able to simply write down correct numbers in blank squares.
With Killer Sudoku, one does get to use the additive properties of numbers, so there really is a difference between the symbols! And the level of effort is more nearly even. In addition, even hard puzzles generally can be solved without writing anything down but the answers. It is my favorite Sudoku variant ("Greater than Killer Sudoku" is my second favorite).
This book is about at the right level. Do not be scared by the "deadly" puzzles at the end, as I found them to be easier than some of the earlier ones.
I recommend this book to all those who enjoy a challenge and have some time on their hands.
» In my opinion, Killer Sudoku puzzles are much more fun and satisfying to solve than regular Sudoku puzzles because of the added complexity of the sums and the various techniques that can be employed to solve them. "Killer Su Doku 1: The Deadly New Dimension" contains 110 puzzles of which there are 17 Gentle, 30 Moderate, 42 Tricky, 16 Tough, and 5 Deadly puzzles. Each puzzle has a suggested time to beat. There is also a two-page "Guidelines for Solving Killer Su Doku".
I didn't find the guidelines for solving to be particularly useful. They give a quite minimal explanation of how to solve these types of puzzles and leave out explanations of some of the more important techniques for solving, such as the 45 Rule. (Steve Arons book, "The Official Book of Killer Sudoku" contains a much more comprehensive introduction.)
Regarding the suggested times, I didn't specifically time myself, but I often noticed that I took much less or much more time than what was suggested. As for difficulty, I found that sometimes a puzzle in a given section was either much harder or much easier than what was implied. The puzzles in the Deadly section were no more difficult than the ones in the Tough section. The hardest puzzles in the book are 78, 98, and 105. I eventually figured out some interesting equations and relational techniques for solving 78 and 98. (Whew, that was fun!) Puzzle 105 is the only one that I have not yet managed to solve.
This brings me to a recommendation for the Solutions section. In general, I find the solutions in the backs of Sudoku books to be useless. If I finish a puzzle and it conforms to the rules then it's correct; otherwise it's wrong. I don't need a solution to tell me that. The only time I look at the solution is occasionally when I'm doing a really difficult puzzle and I want to check an intermediate result to make sure I'm on the right track so I don't end up having to erase the entire puzzle and start over. This also helps to instantly understand what type of mistake I made. Something that would be really helpful in the solutions for the really difficult puzzles would be to show a partially solved grid and an explanation of how to get to the next step.
On the whole I found this book to be very enjoyable and highly recommend it for any Killer Sudoku fan. Publisher, another one please!
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