The New York Times Light and Easy Crossword Puzzles: 130 Fun, Easy Puzzles Mass Market Paperback – June 13, 2005

Great crossword puzzles. Enough of a challenge without getting frustrating.

It is a very good crossword book. I an 74 years old with poor eyesight but I can handle it with reading glasses. I should have bought the large print edition. My fault, not theirs, so although I am not thrilled I can't fault the seller, so 5 stars for their part. Be advised, the squares are 5 mm by 5 mm but it does make the book a handy size for carrying.I bought it for an international flight but the us post office sent it to the wrong sorting center so Iit didn't come in time for my flight. When I mentioned that, Amazon refunded my total cost and told me to keep the book, so I certainly can't complain too much.

Good puzzles, not too easy, not too hard. Size of book is a bit annoying to hold but it’s ok. My book came used...someone did some puzzles in the back of the book and I guess returned it. It was in pencil so I erased it but I was very annoyed.

I am giving this book three stars because the title is misleading. Most of the puzzles are NOT what I would call easy. My definition of easy means "brainless". These puzzles are a bit challenging as they often require prior knowledge of foreign languages such as French, German and Spanish. A strong background of world geography is helpful as well (if you would like to do the puzzles without consulting an almanac). A knowledge of several sports is required and it pays to be at least 60 years old for some of the clues. They are fun, however as long as you have a vast knowledge of many things. In fairness, there are a few puzzles that are actually easy but so far, most are a bit challenging.

It took me awhile to get used to this crossword puzzle book, but now I really like it. I had not done New York Times puzzles before, and I thought the Light & Easy ones would be a good place to start. But the first few puzzles really threw me for a loop. I think I wasn't used to the types of clues in these puzzles, many of which are very obscure and difficult to figure out. For instance, one of the clues was "possible New Year's resolution for an executioner." The answer was "hang tough." I've been doing crossword puzzles for years and had not run into these types of clues before, and there are a lot of them. There seems to be no way to solve many of the clues without getting a few letters from surrounding clues. BUT...I have learned to really like these puzzles now that I've gotten used to them. Many of them are still challenging for me, but now that I have a better idea of what the clues are looking for, I'm really enjoying them. And they wouldn't be much fun if they weren't a little challenging. I can't imagine what the Sunday New York Times puzzles are like!

I bought this book for my Dad who is in Hospital. He does puzzles often, but prefers easy to mid-level. This book is exactly as billed. Light and easy. Dad has kept this book at his bedside for the last week, working about 2 per day, giving us lots to talk about as the hours pass. At first I thought the size (classic paperback book size) would be too small. But, it turned out to be perfect. Easy to read, and handy size. He has commented at least once each day about how perfect the book is!

Had I known that all the puzzles, including the clues, are included in the Amazon listing, I would have printed them instead of buying the book. Many of the puzzles appear to have been written by people who Googled foreign language clues, obscure geographical clues. There were also puzzles in which the answers contained a symbol, instead of a letter. These are not light and easy puzzles. These aren't really even challenging. They're just ridiculously cryptic. The book is so tightly bound that it is impossible to write in the answers without holding the book open. I gave up and ripped the pages out and did the puzzles outside the book.

I love crossword puzzles! Ive been doing them a long time. But this little paperback(I purchased it to keep in my purse) is the most poorly edited collection Ive come across. After trying to complete the first 20 I finally just threw it away. The clues just don’t make sense! Numbers are included in the answers without any suggestion of that feature. I don’t care how inexpensive it is, its not worth a nickel.