Duration: 1st November – 30th November 2021
Number of books: 7
Hosted by: Crazy Challenge Connection
A PUZZLEMENT
DURATION : NOVEMBER 1 – NOVEMBER 30, 2021
Puzzles are a great way to pass the time, as many families rediscovered during the Covid-19 lockdowns. I love puzzles of almost any kind, so when I saw that the third week of November is Game and Puzzle week, I knew we had to come up with a challenge based on some of the most popular types of puzzles. Which of these is your favorite?
CHALLENGE RULES :
See this thread for more detailed rules for all CCC challenges.
PLEASE NOTE : When we ask for an item shown prominently on the cover, we should be able to see the item in the thumbnail, without having to click through to the book’s page.
♦ If you want to participate in this challenge, please sign up by posting at least a partial list of the challenge requirements. This gives us a post to link you to, which you can use to update your books as the challenge progresses.
♦ Unless otherwise noted, books must be at least 150 pages long. (See the link above for rules regarding graphic novels. Please remember that ONLY graphic novels can be combined.) Books may only be used for one task in this challenge, but cross-challenge posting is encouraged 🙂 Re-reads are allowed, as long as you read the entire book. You must read at least half of the book AFTER the challenge begins in order to count it for CCC challenges. If you listen to an audiobook, please be sure that the link you post indicates a page count for the book, even if that means linking to an edition different from the one you listened to.
♦ If you use books that are in a language other than English, please translate those titles into English (even if there is no English title here on GR) for the purposes of our challenges, unless you plan to use that language for the entire challenge. If you do use another language for the whole challenge, please remember that the translations of exempt words/phrases — for example, A, An and The — would be exempt as well.
♦ For each book you read, please post a link to the title, and indicate the author and the date you finished reading it. If a challenge task gives several options, please make it clear which option you’ve chosen. If the task calls for an item on the cover or specific author initials or name/s, you must include a link to the book cover and/or author’s name, respectively. To avoid spoiling a book for other readers, please use spoiler tags when explaining your book choices.*
* For help with posting spoiler tags, see this post: Spoiler tags
* If you don’t know how to post a link to the book title, cover or author, see the instructions here: Add a link to the book title, book cover and/or author
♦ When you complete the challenge, please copy and paste your entire list as a new message at the end of the challenge thread. If you do this while you still have the Edit window open, it will copy all of your links and formatting. If you don’t repost your list, with appropriate links, your name will not be added to the list of those who have completed the challenge. Please do NOT simply post a link back to your original post.
THE TASKS:

1. CROSSWORD
A crossword is a word puzzle consisting of a grid of squares and blanks into which words crossing vertically and horizontally are filled according to given clues. The first crossword puzzle was written by journalist Arthur Wynne and published in New York World in December 1913. In North America and Britain, it is considered traditional for crossword grids to have 180-degree rotational symmetry for the patterns of the puzzle to appear the same if the paper is turned upside down. Crossword puzzles flex a mental muscle known as fluency, which is an essential part of keeping your brain sharp.
⁂ Read a book with a cover that is ONLY black and white (author name and title may be other colors); post the cover OR a book originally published in a year ending in 13; tell us the year

2. ESCAPE ROOM (image from PRWeek.com)
An escape room is a game in which a team of players discover clues, crack codes and solve challenging puzzles in one or more rooms in order to escape from a room or building. The first escape room opened in Japan in 2007, and it is now estimated that there are over 50,000 escape rooms worldwide, with at least one in 44 different countries. There are hundreds of different themes of rooms to choose from, but the most popular themes are outsmarting guards to escape from prison, escaping from zombies (or finding a cure for them), and robbing a bank and fleeing before you’re caught. The average escape room is 60 minutes long, but there’s one in Greece that takes 3 hours.
⁂ Read a book in which someone has to escape from a dangerous situation; using spoiler tags, briefly explain OR a book where the first letter of every word in the title can be found in ESCAPEROOM, 2-word minimum (a letter can only be used as many times as it appears in the phrase) – Archangel’s Blade by Nalini Singh

3. JIGSAW PUZZLES
A jigsaw puzzle consists of a picture printed on cardboard or wood and cut into various pieces of different shapes that have to be fitted together. Most historians credit English engraver John Spilsbury with creating the first jigsaw puzzle when he mounted a world map to a sheet of hardwood and cut around the country borders with a handsaw. He sold these “dissected maps” as a tool to teach geography. The mass production of jigsaw puzzles began with the introduction of the die-cut machine in the 20th century. Now they’re available in every shape imaginable – including 3D puzzles. According to Guinness World Records, the largest jigsaw puzzle was completed in 2018 in Dubai, a feat that featured 12,320 pieces and was some 65,000-plus square feet.
⁂ Read a book by an author named John (reasonable variations accepted); post a link to the author’s GR page OR a book with over 12,320 GR ratings; tell us how many – What We Find by Robyn Carr (15,228 ratings)

4. LOGIC (image from PuzzlersParadise.com)
A logic puzzle is a puzzle that can be solved by deductive reasoning. This puzzle features a grid which the user fills in according to the clues provided. They were first produced by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, better known as Lewis Carroll. The most popular logic puzzle is the elimination grid, where the correct pairing for a set of objects must be determined by the process of elimination. The set-up to a scenario is given, as well as the object (for example, determine who brought what dog to a dog show, and what breed each dog was), certain clues are given (“neither Misty nor Rex is the German Shepherd”), and then the reader fills out a matrix with the clues and attempts to deduce the solution.
⁂ Read a book whose title contains the letters L-O-G-I-C, not necessarily in order or in the same word OR a book by an author who writes under at least two different names; post a link to both/all of the author’s GR pages


5. MECHANICAL
A mechanical puzzle is a self-contained object, composed of one or more parts, which involves a problem for one person to solve by manipulation using logic, reasoning, insight, luck, and/or dexterity. The puzzles range from ancient tangrams, to modern-day sophisticated and complex three-dimensional interlocking solid puzzles. From simple wire puzzles which were so popular around the turn of the century to beautiful and intriguing Chinese ring puzzles to secret boxes with hidden openings to sequential movement puzzles, mechanical puzzles vary greatly and are probably the oldest type of puzzle.
⁂ Read a book with a standard geometrical shape (circle, square, triangle, rectangle) shown prominently on the cover; post the cover OR a book by an author whose first and last initials can be found in MECHANICAL; post a link to the author’s GR page – The Answer to the Riddle is Me by David Stuart MacLean

6. RUBIK’S CUBE
Originally called the Magic Cube when it was introduced in 1974, is a plastic cube covered with multicolored squares, which the player attempts to twist and turn so that all the squares on each face are of the same color. It was created by Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture Ernő Rubik. In 1980, due to international patent challenges that arose, the name was changed to Rubik’s Cube. With six sides representing nine blocks of six colors – orange, yellow, green, red, white, and blue – a Rubik’s Cube is said to hold 43 quintillion potential configurations. In 2015, 14-year-old Lucas Etter solved the Cube in a world record time of 4.90 seconds. The world’s largest Rubik’s Cube is almost 7 feet (a bit over 2 meters) square.
⁂ Read a book whose title has changed at least once for reasons other than translation; post a link to at least two of the different titles OR a series book #3 or #4; tell us the series – The Tea Dragon Tapestry by Kay O’Neill

7. SUDOKU
A sudoku puzzle consists of a grid of 81 squares, divided into nine blocks of nine squares each. Some of the squares contain a number – more numbers in the easier puzzles, only a few in the harder ones. The goal is to fill in the empty squares so that the figures 1 to 9 appear just once in every row, column and individual block. Many have attributed the puzzle, which has a Japanese name, to the mysteries of the Land of the Rising Sun. But its true modern origin lies with a team of puzzle constructors at Dell Puzzle Magazines in Manhattan in the 1970s. The game didn’t really become popular until 2004 when The Times in London began to publish it.
⁂ Read a book whose MC works primarily with numbers in some way; tell us the career OR a book with an intact 81 in its total page count; tell us how many pages
Sources include:
www.wealthwords.com/blog/puzzle-types
clontz.org/puzzles/types/
Wikipedia