The Crossword Obsession: The History and Love of the World's Most Popular Pastime

Rating:
Summary: A waste of time
Review: Don' bother to buy the book. Anyone can send a survey to people of like minds then use their replies to write a book. I was very disappointed n the contents of the book but glad that I had purchased it used not new.

Rating:
Summary: fascinating -- but only if you're a true crossword addict
Review: I wouldn't call this book particularly well written. There's some history, but the book doesn't provide a long, captivating narrative of the development of the puzzle, or a psychoanalysis of the folks who become addicted to their daily puzzle. Rather, the book is more or less a collection of comments and insight from many of the creators of currently-published crosswords -- how they got into puzzle creation, how they sold their first puzzle, how long it takes them to solve the Sunday NY Times puzzle, etc. The book is behind-the-scenes reality show on crossword puzzles. After reading it, you'll have a good sense of how puzzles are created, how they are edited, what makes a puzzle good, what makes a puzzle bad (or unpublishable), and how the daily crossword puzzle ends up as a final product in your morning newspaper. You'll learn about the preferences of different editors (now I finally know why my collections of NY Times crosswords edited by Will Shortz are SO MUCH MORE FUN TO SOLVE than the NY Times crosswords edited by Eugene Maleska). You'll learn about the evils of "crosswordese" (if you're reading this -- you know what I'm talking about -- words like etui). The book contains biographical shorts of the various crossworders who contributed -- they come from varied backgrounds, from Will Shortz, who majored in crossword puzzles in college (seriously) to dentists and physical therapists and lawyers who got sucked in by their hobby. The book also contains some very good puzzles and their solutions -- though I wouldn't recommend this book if your only interest in in solving puzzles. Overall, a great selection if you want to get to know the clever people and the detailed process that deliver crossword puzzles to the rest of us -- it may be of limited interest to anyone else.