2007 Holiday Shopping Guide

One of my readers wrote to ask me for some crossword gift recommendations, so I teamed up with Orange to give you some idea of what to buy for the crossword lovers in your life—or what to put on your own wish list. There are many hundreds of other crossword books out there, but this list can get you started and steer you towards the books and series with the Crossword Blogger Seal of Approval [note to Orange - we really should create one of these Seals so I can stamp it on everything I like]. Alas, we have no recommendations for crossword dictionaries, because we don't happen to use 'em (not because we're perfect, but because we simply don't find them useful).

NONFICTION

• Amy Reynaldo's How to Conquer the New York Times Crossword Puzzle: Hands-on coaching to improve solving skills, along with 60+ NYT crossword puzzles (Orange put this category at the bottom, but Rex said to move it to the top for proper self-aggrandizement)
• Matt Gaffney's Gridlock: An engaging book about crossword constructors, the art of construction, the business aspects, and the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. Both Orange and Rex's favorite portrait of the crossword world.

FOR KIDS

• Trip Payne's Amazing Crosswords for Kids
• Trip Payne's Awesome Crosswords for Kids
• Ben Tausig's Mad Tausig Vs the Interplanetary Puzzling Peace Patrol: Puzzles with a plotline
• Eric Berlin's The Puzzling World of Winston Breen: Kids' mystery novel where puzzles are integral to untangling the mystery; has been compared to The Westing Game
• Patrick Merrell's My First Puzzles: Picture Clue Crosswords: for younger kids than the other books listed here

SUNDAY-SIZED PUZZLES

• Washington Post Sunday Crossword Puzzles, Volume 13
• Henry Hook, Emily Cox, and Henry Rathvon's Boston Globe Sunday Crossword Puzzles, Volume 15
• NYT's Will Shortz's Favorite Sunday Crossword Puzzles
• Will Shortz's Funniest Crossword Puzzles
• Merl Reagle's Sunday Crosswords, Volumes 1-14: Free shipping, and Merl will sign the book for you!
• The Wall Street Journal Crossword Puzzles, Volume 5: Excellent crosswords, some with businessy themes
• Maura Jacobson's New York Magazine Crossword Puzzle Omnibus, Volume 1: Maura constructs for the crossword tournament every year, so this is good practice
• Simon & Schuster Crossword Puzzle Book #257: The S&S books contain puzzles in a variety of sizes, including mid-sized 17x17s and 19x19s—good training for the crossword tournament if you want to check your speed on those puzzle sizes

THEMED DAILY-SIZED CROSSWORDS

• Patrick Berry's Crossword Puzzle Challenges for Dummies: Seventy great crosswords and a book of hands-on advice for budding crossword constructors
• New York Sun Easy Monday Crosswords
• New York Sun Tougher Tuesday Crosswords
• New York Sun Harder Wednesday Crosswords
• The New York Times Crossword Challenge: 250 puzzles from Monday through Sunday, so themeless and Sunday-sized crosswords are also included; each puzzle is labeled with its original day of publication, which Rex's wife appreciates
• Cathy Millhauser's Humorous Crosswords
• David Levinson Wilk's Really Clever Crosswords 2

THEMELESS AND/OR HARD PUZZLES

• New York Times X-Treme X-Words: The toughest Saturday and Friday puzzles from the earlier years of Shortz's reign
• Frank Longo's Cranium-Crushing Crosswords: Longo's first killer book
• Frank Longo's Mensa Crosswords for the Super Smart: 72 Cranium-Crushing Challenges: Longo's follow-up killer book; half the grids are asymmetrical
• New York Sun Killer Thursday Crosswords: Half themeless, half hard themed
• New York Sun Cranium-Crushing Friday Crosswords: Half themeless, half hard themed
• CrosSynergy's Challenging 30-Minute Crosswords: These are themeless "Sunday Challenge" puzzles from the CrosSynergy syndicate

ALT.CROSSWORDS

• Francis Heaney (ed.): Crasswords: Dirty Crosswords for Cunning Linguists: A-list constructors + risque content = puzzles you won't see in the daily paper
• Ben Tausig's Gonzo Crosswords: Crosswords from the Chicago Reader and Village Voice, by the editor of the Onion's crossword

FOR POP-CULTURE VULTURES

• Trip Payne's Pop Culture Crosswords
• Matt Gaffney's TV Crosswords
• Stan Newman's Sitcom Crosswords
• Puzzability's Celebrity Crosswords
• Matt Gaffney's Classic Movie Crosswords
• Matt Gaffney's Movie Crosswords

FOR SPORTS FANS

• Matt Gaffney's Sports Crosswords
• Matt Gaffney's Golf Crosswords
• David Kahn and Will Shortz's Baseball Crosswords

FOR LITERARY LIONS

• Matt Gaffney's Literary Crosswords
• Stanley Newman's Literary Crosswords

FOR TRIVIA BUFFS

• Francis Heaney's Trivial Pursuit Crosswords
• Stan Newman's Ultimate Trivia Crosswords

OTHER TYPES OF PUZZLES

• 101 Cryptic Crosswords: From the New Yorker: A good introduction to cryptic crosswords for new cryptic solvers
• Frank Longo's Wordoku: Sudoku logic puzzles with a word twist—each grid will have a 9-letter word in one row or column, so anagramming the given letters can assist in solving
• Matt Gaffney's Kaidoku: Crosswords with no clues, requiring a knack for logic and letter patterns/frequency
• Henry Hook's Terribly Twisted Crosswords: Variety grids with tough clues and excellent fill
• Henry Hook's Twisted Crosswords: The predecessor of the above book; this one might be a little tougher

STOCKING STUFFERS

• Sterling's Sip & Solve Series and Sit & Solve Series of mini-books: Crosswords, sudoku, word searches, hangman, logic puzzles, math puzzles, trivia quizzes, and more. Barnes & Noble stores have racks of these to browse through. The books are shaped like toilet seats, coffee cups, and modes of transportation.
• Patrick Merrell and Helene Hovanec's Coffee Time: A chunky little book with puzzles and trivia about the caffeinated lifeblood

AND A VIRTUAL GIFT

• A gift subscription to the New York Times Premium Puzzles service: If you or someone you love are fond of the Times crossword, Premium Puzzles lets you get your hands on the crossword the night before it's published in the paper, and also gives you access to a decade of archived puzzles