Thinking Inside the Box

Fun and a pretty quick read - though probably not all that interesting unless you like crosswords, obviously. Luckily, I do, and I enjoyed the author's journey through the history of puzzles. I would've liked a little less focus on the New York Times crossword puzzle; while it's still clearly the most prominent, I think there's a lot more interesting (and certainly more inclusive) work being done in the indie-puzzle world. There are brief mentions of that, and a good section dealing with several of the more recent racial/gender controversies in the NYT puzzle, but I would've loved longer interviews with people like Ben Tausig or the editors of the Inkubator. Overall, though, I really did enjoy this and the epilogue about a crossword cruise is hilarious!

I kind of dig crosswords now and then (the majority are just too difficult for me) so this book definitely sparked my interest. Raphel is a superfan and I appreciate her love of the puzzle. I like that there's a lot of insightful and entertaining stories about the puzzle that include its history, originators, famous fans, massive obsessive fandom, and her personal connections with the puzzle. This book is a little dry and could've been written a bit better with more of her personality put into it but overall I enjoyed this one. It's not A.J. Jacobs' “The Puzzler” nor Oliver Roeder's “Seven Games”, but “Thinking Inside the Box” is a good book for those interested in learning more about the crossword. FYI, these Goodreads reviews for this book are way too brutal and it's not nearly as awful or unreadable as some are saying it is.