The New York Times Ultimate Crossword Omnibus: 1,001 Puzzles from The New York Times

Rating:
Summary: It is what it is and it is great.
Review: I was buying the NY Times everyday just so I could do the puzzle at lunchtime at the office. In the area I lived, it was $1 a day! Do the math. This collection saved me a bundle.

As a habitual crossword puzzler, I switched from habitually buying the paper each morning to habitually zeroxing the next puzzle in this book. I found it much easier to copy the puzzles than to hold this rather bulky tome. And copying allowed me to enlarge them to a full letter size page if I so desired (though it was not necessary -- the puzzles are their normal dimensions and fit two-to-a-page in this collection).

Working off a copy also discouraged me from turning the page and starting a different puzzle when I got stuck on the really tough Friday and Saturday puzzles.

If you're a habitual puzzler, this book is a god send.

Bottom line(s): The price is obviously fantastic. The collection is obviously HUGE! The puzzles are just like the daily paper -- from Monday-easy to Saturday-nearly-impossible. I never ran into a puzzle I remembered doing in the paper.

No cons, but some advice... It's not the kind of book you'll want to carry around since it is, of course, large. And if you're not a habitual puzzler, it might end up on a shelf unused since it is a daunting number of puzzles.

Also, in case you're a novice puzzler, the NY Times puzzles can get pretty hard. If you're used to clues like, "Wheel OF Fortune's Sajak" for p-a-t, you're in for a challenge. Instead, you'll be getting "foie gras" for p-a-t-e. (Frequent foreign language clues, people you've never heard of, obscure island names, etc.)

The good news is that your vocabulary will expand and you'll learn a lot more than you would from the TV guide puzzle. I know I've learned a lot from the NY Times puzzles. Thank you, Will Shortz.

And, in case you haven't figured it out, the "Search inside this book" link above will get you the first 12 puzzles! If you like them, there are 989 more to go!

Rating:
Summary: For the frugal and crossword obsessed....
Review: One of my defining personality traits is cheapness. When looking for a crossword book, I wanted the most crosswords for my money, which this definitely is. If you did 3 a day it would still take you most of a year to finish the book. I expect to own the book for 3 or 4 years at the rate I'm going. I would have given it five stars, because of the great array of puzzles included, but it may be too much of a good thing...Maybe I don't really need 1001 crosswords...

Rating:
Summary: For the frugal and crossword obsessed....
Review: One of my defining personality traits is cheapness. When looking for a crossword book, I wanted the most crosswords for my money, which this definitely is. If you did 3 a day it would still take you most of a year to finish the book. I expect to own the book for 3 or 4 years at the rate I'm going. I would have given it five stars, because of the great array of puzzles included, but it may be too much of a good thing...Maybe I don't really need 1001 crosswords...