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A review by msjoanna
A Tangled Tale by Lewis Carroll
3.0
This book consists of a series of puzzles (called "knots") of the missionaries and cannibals problem (wherein one must get all the people across a river in a boat that only holds xx persons and there are constraints about who can travel together or be left alone on one or the other side of the river). Some of the problems were more math based and some were more like traveling salesmen type maps.
Overall, many of these "knots" felt more like tricks than like puzzles or problems. I got fewer than half of the solutions correct, but in reading the answers, I sometimes felt that I'd been unfairly tricked by the phrasing of the problem rather than by a failure of thought. I suppose that's the way with these things.
At the end of the book, the author gives the solutions and also reviews the solutions that were sent in when these problems were published. I enjoyed reading the answers and hearing about the wrong answers that others had come up with--at least that made me feel better about failing to find the correct solution so often.
Overall, many of these "knots" felt more like tricks than like puzzles or problems. I got fewer than half of the solutions correct, but in reading the answers, I sometimes felt that I'd been unfairly tricked by the phrasing of the problem rather than by a failure of thought. I suppose that's the way with these things.
At the end of the book, the author gives the solutions and also reviews the solutions that were sent in when these problems were published. I enjoyed reading the answers and hearing about the wrong answers that others had come up with--at least that made me feel better about failing to find the correct solution so often.