Boxall's 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die discussion

I resolved this new year to do crosswords. I spend enough time at swim meets etc that it would be worth doing during those long waits. Anyone here enjoy them? Advice for a crossword newbie? I bought a book with 10 minute ones and a daily ny times calendar of crosswords. Any suggestions? Does it get easier with attempts/practice?

As much as I enjoyed puzzles as a kid (even had a subscription to Games magazine) I didn't really get into crosswords until I was a adult subscriber to the Sunday Chicago Tribune. It helped that I was actually able to complete them; some of the tougher NY Times puzzles knocked me off my self-erected pedestal. :)

These days, if I'm within reach of a newspaper's or airline magazine's puzzle page, I usually do the Sudoku first (my current vice; I have a couple of books) and save the crossword for last.

I guess my primary (and cliched but true) advice is to have fun and don't take them too seriously. If you're not able to complete one, it doesn't mean you're stupid. (A lot of people think crosswords are only for smart people...I still don't get that.) I do believe that reading widely and often helps a lot. And yes, if you do a lot of crosswords you'll start to see recurring words and you can pop those in more quickly. ("Yemen gulf port (4)" is almost always Aden.) If necessary, you can get a crossword dictionary to help, but I'm not sure how well those work these days given how many specific references I've seen in, for example, some of Will Shortz' harder NY Times puzzles.

Enjoy!

I definitely get better at solving crosswords with practice and attempts. Putting a puzzle down and coming back to it later always does wonders.

I too had a subscription to Games at one point, but there were always puzzles so difficult that I never even attempted them. The subscription was a gift from my dad from whom I inherited my love of crosswords.

I have a crossword dictionary but I never use it.

One thing you may already know is that the puzzles in the New York Times increase in difficulty from Monday to Sunday. The same clue can have a Monday answer and a Sunday answer, the Sunday answer being more challenging. You can pay for a monthly or annual subscription (http://www.nytimes.com/pages/crosswor...) and download puzzles to solve on your computer or print out. I prefer to print them out.

Have you seen Wordplay? That's a fun crossword movie. There's a book too, a companion to the movie.

They definitely get easier with practice! Especially if you're following the same puzzle for a long time (like the NYT puzzle or some other newspaper)

My advice is to give yourself awhile to finish one puzzle, and go back to it over and over again, because you never know when inspiration will strike.

If you're pretty sure that you can't do anymore, look up the answers. You might see that clue again later.

The puzzle I do every day is the crossword published online by The Los Angeles Times. If you want to start with that one, you can put it on a setting that will tell you when you fill in something that is incorrect. Probably crossword purists wouldn't like that, but for me it makes for a fun, but not overly challenging, diversion. I do learn clues over time and I'll also do other crosswords when I come across them, but that is my main habit at this point. Maybe I'll break down and get a subscription for the NY Times puzzles sometime. Until then, LA Times it is.