Sudoku

I started playing Sudoku again. I know I'll be playing the electronic version I bought on my flight back from Oslo, Norway while enroute and back to San Juan, Puerto Rico. It's a great way to while away some time while you're waiting for your flight at the airport as well as use up some of the scrap paper from your computer printer.

This past Sunday, I was at the Laurel Books-a-Million. I saw a Sudoku game book that offered tips on how to solve the puzzles faster. I decided to see what tips it offered. While checking those out, I found out that Sudoku has become bigger than crossword puzzles in the U.S. There are now more Sudoku puzzle books published than crossword puzzle books. All major newspapers now carry the puzzles. I suspect people prefer Sudoku because it isn't dependent on their vocabulary. Also, the puzzles are very challenging. Last night, I tried to beat my best time of 12 minutes 51 seconds. Luck wasn't with me though. I swear the machine came up with one of the harder level 1 puzzles. It ended up taking me over 41 minutes to solve the dang thing. Still, it was fun doing the puzzle and it is a great way to exercise the mind. I look forward to playing a lot of Sudoku while I'm off on my latest adventure.