This review is from: The Total Brain Workout: 450 Puzzles to Sharpen Your Mind, Improve Your Memory & Keep Your Brain Fit (Paperback)
I love math puzzles, alternative math education of every sort, and try to foist this material on my kids at every opportunity.
This is the best puzzle book I’ve ever seen. And don’t get fooled by the silly, generic cover that looks so much like any other book.
The book organizes the puzzles into coherent types (logic, patterns, etc.), gives introductory strategies for solving, and gives a good number of practice problems of each sort.
Most importantly, the problems are actually doable, tractable, reasonable. As a lifelong puzzler, I still think most similar books are either too difficult or have absurd and non-generalizable tricks to the solutions.
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This review is from: The Total Brain Workout: 450 Puzzles to Sharpen Your Mind, Improve Your Memory & Keep Your Brain Fit (Paperback)
Admittedly, the title is a bit misleading. There is some evidence that working puzzles like these in a progressively graduated manner will help to prolong brain function. But, as the author freely admits, that connection has not been proven. Still, the author — a Ph.D. who specializes in puzzles — created this collection of puzzles with this hypothesis in mind. So the puzzles are organized from easier to more difficult.
The selection of puzzles themselves is excellent. Furthermore, the book provides fascinating information about the different kinds of puzzles. In this way, the book really goes beyond your usual puzzle book. Not only is it full of puzzles, it is highly informative, as well.
Another powerful aspect of this book is the obvious personal involvement of the author. He makes frequent mention of his own life; this stands out from the more common puzzles-in-a-vacuum approach. It makes for friendlier, more personal reading and solving. Recommended for any fans of puzzles.
This review is from: The Total Brain Workout: 450 Puzzles to Sharpen Your Mind, Improve Your Memory & Keep Your Brain Fit (Paperback)
I purchased this workbook for use in speech/language therapy with patients who need a little work with language and memory. It proved to be just the right amount of challenge without being too challenging for those recovering from a mild stroke or an extended hospital stay. I would recommend it to those looking for a nicely priced puzzle book for word games/analysis, some math problems, etc.
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Best book of its kind,
This is the best puzzle book I’ve ever seen. And don’t get fooled by the silly, generic cover that looks so much like any other book.
The book organizes the puzzles into coherent types (logic, patterns, etc.), gives introductory strategies for solving, and gives a good number of practice problems of each sort.
Most importantly, the problems are actually doable, tractable, reasonable. As a lifelong puzzler, I still think most similar books are either too difficult or have absurd and non-generalizable tricks to the solutions.
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|For people who love solving and learning about puzzles,
The selection of puzzles themselves is excellent. Furthermore, the book provides fascinating information about the different kinds of puzzles. In this way, the book really goes beyond your usual puzzle book. Not only is it full of puzzles, it is highly informative, as well.
Another powerful aspect of this book is the obvious personal involvement of the author. He makes frequent mention of his own life; this stands out from the more common puzzles-in-a-vacuum approach. It makes for friendlier, more personal reading and solving. Recommended for any fans of puzzles.
Also check out THE Book of Word Games: Parlett’s Guide to 150 Great and Quick-to-Learn Word Games. It’s written by a scholar of word games. And there’s also the excellent sequel to this book, Extreme Brain Workout: 500 Fun and Challenging Puzzles to Boost Your Brain Power.
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|Fun Workbook,
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