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William Hartston

Author of The Encyclopedia of Useless Information

65 Works 928 Members 11 Reviews

About the Author

Works by William Hartston

Teach Yourself Better Chess (1997) 85 copies
Chess (Teach Yourself) (1985) 78 copies
The King's Indian Defence (1973) 36 copies
How to Cheat at Chess (1976) 34 copies
Karpov-Korchnoi, 1974 (1974) 24 copies
Psychology of Chess (1984) 13 copies
The Grunfeld Defence (1971) 12 copies
Play Chess (1980) 6 copies
The Super Clash (1987) 3 copies
Brilliant chess (2011) 2 copies
Forgotten Treasures: v. 2 (2007) 2 copies
JOUER AUX ÉCHECS (2016) 2 copies
Forgotten Treasures (2007) 1 copy

Tagged

Common Knowledge

Members

Reviews

William Hartston has directed this book at those mystified by mathematics, or at least that is what the subheading says. And the book is full of accounts of why the world would be a better place if politicians better understood logic, lawyers knew probability and journalists could grasp statistics. Unfortunately, it seems as though none of these professions are likely to pick up this book. Instead, it will be numerate nerds who will read it, tut-tutting at the foolishness of these innumerate elites.… (more)
 
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dunnmj | Mar 10, 2022 |
nonfiction/history of behaviors of sloths
I'm all for sloths, and nonfiction, and even nonfiction history, but the first 1/3 of the book (3-4 chapters) was SO BORING. This is less a "Celebration" than just a dull recounting of the author's research. One assumes that the later chapters about sloth behavior would be more interesting, but unfortunately I was so unimpressed that I didn't care to continue.
 
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reader1009 | 2 other reviews | Jul 3, 2021 |
As a puzzle-setter in the escape room business, I couldn't resist getting a copy of Hartston's book after a good friend informed me about its existence. After finishing it, I'm not really convinced that I know much more about the "history of puzzles", however. Perhaps a better title would have been "categorisation of puzzles", as only the first few chapters dig into some brief historical research.

The format of the book is text interspersed with related puzzles. That sounds nice enough, but I quickly realised that I was never in the mood for solving the puzzles when I wanted to read about them. So I stopped trying and just went straight for the solutions presented at the end. :-)

The book ends with a prize puzzle. I can't compete since I don't have an address in the UK, but I don't find myself motivated to even try it. As the book continued, the author put in more and more of his own puzzles (not without bragging about their ingenuity) and I never found these to be particularly engaging.

So, in short, it's a nice little work definitely giving some insight into the classification of puzzles, presenting an overview of the classics and highlighting some master puzzle setters from past and present. Don't expect much more, however.
… (more)
 
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bbbart | Dec 27, 2020 |
Loved it. Almost as much as I love sloths (which is a lot). OK, seriously, it's incredibly well researched which is unusual for any publication about sloths, is well written, funny and about as comprehensive as one can wish for.
 
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JuliaMay | 2 other reviews | Dec 10, 2020 |

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Statistics

Works
65
Members
928
Popularity
#27,659
Rating
½ 3.5
Reviews
11
ISBNs
103
Languages
7

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