Kayote B. (kayote) reviewed The One, the Only, the Original Jigsaw Puzzle Book on + 254 more book reviews
Some of the problem with this book is I thought it was an actual history of jigsaw puzzles.
Some of the problem with this book is it doesn't know what it is--is it a humor book? a history book? factual? made up? social commentary? A woodworking pattern?
There is some actual facts in here--including detailed instructions for making a table or lazy susan from a completed puzzle. There is also utter bunk such as the tour of a by-mail-puzzle-school. There is some real history in there--but it's hard to tell what's history and what's just made up, because there's a lot of that, too. Same with the psychology of puzzling and puzzlers.
I don't think I'd have liked it as a all-in humor book (I didn't much like the author's humor, and much of it did not age well from the 1970s), but I'd be less frustrated by it. I would like to read the history book I thought it was. At the very least, I wish the authors had figured out what they were trying to write before they started editing--it's a choatic jumble of running in all directions leaving the reader baffled.
Some of the problem with this book is it doesn't know what it is--is it a humor book? a history book? factual? made up? social commentary? A woodworking pattern?
There is some actual facts in here--including detailed instructions for making a table or lazy susan from a completed puzzle. There is also utter bunk such as the tour of a by-mail-puzzle-school. There is some real history in there--but it's hard to tell what's history and what's just made up, because there's a lot of that, too. Same with the psychology of puzzling and puzzlers.
I don't think I'd have liked it as a all-in humor book (I didn't much like the author's humor, and much of it did not age well from the 1970s), but I'd be less frustrated by it. I would like to read the history book I thought it was. At the very least, I wish the authors had figured out what they were trying to write before they started editing--it's a choatic jumble of running in all directions leaving the reader baffled.
