Puzzle Instinct

Marcel Danesi is Professor of Semiotics and Anthropology at the University of Toronto and Director of the Program in Semiotics and Communication Theory. His books include Increase Your Puzzle IQ and Of Cigarettes, High Heels, and Other Interesting Things: An Introduction to Semiotics. He lives in Toronto.

• Preface1. Why Puzzles?2. Puzzling Language: Riddles, Anagrams, and Other Verbal Perplexities3. Puzzling Pictures: Optical Illusions, Mazes, and Other Visual Mind-Bogglers4. Puzzling Logic: Deductions, Paradoxes, and Other Forms of Mind Play5. Puzzling Numbers: Magic Squares, Cryptarithms, and Other Mathematical Recreations6. Puzzling Games: Chess, Checkers, and Other Games7. The Puzzle of LifeSolutionsBibliography and General Reading ListIndex

"Danesi, a professor of semiotics and anthropology (Univ. of Toronto), explores why puzzles, having arisen in earliest human history at the same time as mystery cults, are an intrinsic part of human life. Will Shortz, crossword puzzle editor of the New York Times, has suggested enigmatology as the study of the relationship between puzzles and culture. This book, which explores the puzzle genres that have survived over the years, is a contribution to that rubric. After first asking the question Why puzzles? (and developing several possible answers, among which is that they provide comic relief from unanswerable larger questions), Danesi devotes chapters to each of several types of puzzle. These include language puzzles (e.g., riddles and anagrams); pictures (e.g., optical illusions and mazes); logic (e.g., deductions and paradoxes); numbers (e.g., mathematical recreations); and games (e.g., chess). A final chapter synopsizes the discussion. A detailed list of references is included, as are solutions to the specific puzzles posed. The book is well written, has no mathematical prerequisites, and is quite suitable for a general audience as well as lower- and upper-division undergraduates.December 2002"—D. Robbins, Trinity College (CT)