A review by protoman21
The Puzzler: One Man's Quest to Solve the Most Baffling Puzzles Ever, from Crosswords to Jigsaws to the Meaning of Life by A.J. Jacobs

5.0

As a puzzle lover, this was an excellent journey through one man's quest to explore all different kinds of puzzles and to meet the people who take puzzling to it's extreme. I have enjoyed puzzles my whole life and have gone through different phases where I'll obsess over a different type of puzzle for a time, but I don't come anywhere near the people Jacobs meets in this book who devote their lives to certain types of puzzles. I have always found it fascinating to dive into the world of a niche hobby and see how impressive the people who are the best of the best truly are, and this book does an amazing job of putting the talents of these extreme hobbyists on display. Jacobs approaches each different style of puzzle with great curiosity and amazement and reveals the joys of doing hard things along the way. Although I may be predisposed to puzzling, I believe anybody who reads this will find themselves pulling out a jigsaw or grabbing a crossword and pencil to scratch that puzzling itch for themselves.