Gift ideas for puzzle fans
A wordsearch with only five letters.
The whole grid is built from five letters, so every word hides among near-copies of itself. Anyone understands it in a second; nobody finds the words in a second. 150 grids, one per page, in a paperback that fits a stocking.
For the one who does the wordsearch
Extreme Wordsearch 1 comes in two editions. Pick the spelling they use.
Extreme Wordsearch 1 British English edition
Spelling: colour, centre, favourite. 150 grids, 184 pages, 5 × 8 in. Full solutions at the back.
Extreme Wordsearch 1 US English edition
Spelling: color, center, favorite. 150 grids, 184 pages, 5 × 8 in. Full solutions at the back.
- Only five letters per grid: the eye has nothing to lock on to, so a word like STREET hides among STREETS of near-misses
- Every listed word appears exactly once; words run in all eight directions
- No technique to learn: the whole family can try one page over Christmas dinner
- £8.99 / $9.99 paperback, small enough for a stocking or a bag
Try one first: a free printable grid
One five-letter grid with its 16 words, on a single sheet (A4 or Letter), with the solution on page two. Print it and hand it to the person you're buying for. If they're still at it twenty minutes later, you've found their present.
This grid is not in any of the books. Free to print for personal use.
More free puzzles
We send one email a month when new Extreme Puzzle Books come out, with a free puzzle inside. The signup opens here soon.
For the serious solver
For the person who says the newspaper sudoku is too easy. Every solution in these books has a QR code to a step-by-step walkthrough, so the gift never becomes a dead end.
Which book for which person?
| They… | Give them |
|---|---|
| do the wordsearch in the paper, or like word games, or you're just not sure | Extreme Wordsearch 1 (British English or US English edition) |
| finish every sudoku they're given and want something properly hard | Extreme Sudoku 1, then 2 |
| already think sudoku is easy | Extreme Killer Sudoku 1: no starting digits, just cages and sums |
| are a whole family of puzzlers | A wordsearch for the table and a killer sudoku for the one who hogs the newspaper |
All books: 5 × 8 in paperback, 150 puzzles, £8.99 / $9.99, printed and sold by Amazon. Puzzles by M. J. Bailey.