The Librarian's Almanaq

by Roy Leban

The Librarian’s Almanaq is the culmination of Literally centuries Of tremendous work by a dedicated team Of researchers who just couldn’t Keep it under wraps. Here, you’ll get the advice you need to be successful in the World and learn the sine qua non of puzzledom. Never before has a wealth of Information like This been gathered in one place, let alone a single volume. Your Hunger for sacred knowledge can finally be sated! Examine the Almanaq carefully and make sure to read the Instructions, and you can turn onto a New path toward enlightenment. [The Librarian’s Almanaq is an all-in-one puzzlehunt, an interconnected suite of a dozen unique and fun puzzles, culminating in a satisfying conclusion, and all put together in a form you’ve never seen before. Solving time is 8-40 hours for 1 person; proportionally less for groups. You will need a large table or floor space to work on, plus a pen or pencil, scissors, and transparent tape to solve the puzzles. A highlighter, felt-tip marker, and a live duck would be handy.]

Genres: Puzzles, Fiction

280 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2015

Reviews

[Holly Underwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

Solving this book with my group of girlfriends was SO much fun! All were hard in their own way, but solvable with pooled knowledge and creativity. Once we solved a puzzle, it was clear we had done so. The variety of puzzle types is great too, and includes some types I’ve never seen before. And we liked that the puzzles are self-contained, so we could do one or two, then head out and do something else, returning to each puzzle when we were fresh.

We really appreciated the online resource which offered a variety of well-guarded broad hints as well as the ability to verify our answers.

Our group of four experienced puzzle solvers took 7-8 hours to solve the book and loved every minute of it. I highly recommend it!

[Lawrence · Rating 5 out of 5]

I suppose I didn't technically read the book all the way through, but I think I still had the complete experience you're supposed to get from the book, which is the experience of working through the entire set of puzzles with a group. I thought that was good enough to mark it as "read". The rating is for that experience as well, and probably very much depended on the particular group I was solving the puzzles with, but the nature of the puzzles definitely enhanced the experience tremendously. Our group of seven got through it all in about five and a half hours. There are certainly harder and more elaborate versions of some of these puzzles out there (some of which I looked up after we got through the book), but a lot of the types were new to me, and we were glad we were able to get through it all in one session; so it was good, I think, that it wasn't *too* challenging.

[R Cloake · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant concept and if you enjoy solving puzzles as a group, I can't recommend this enough. Definitely requires a group effort, though there's nothing stopping you doing this on your own but I think it would take a long time. The starting puzzle took a lot longer to assemble than we expected - having read the initial instuctions, I thought that we'd breeze through the starting puzzle in under an hour and be well onto the next section by the time we ran out of evening - but instead, just the starting puzzle took probably about 4 or 5 hours in total (over a couple of days) with up to 10 people helping at various times. You also need a lot more floor space than we expected - I'd recommend at least 6 foot square to lay all the pieces out.

[Kcastro]

You actually take the book apart to solve the puzzle.

[Jennifer Meiring · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this! It was so much fun! I received the book as a gift because I enjoy puzzles. There were a few parts that were tricky and I found myself stuck, but the author was very quick to respond to my email with questions, and also gave me a link to a website where there are hints and you can check your answers! The final answer wasn't super exciting, but getting there was a lot of fun!

[Kaui · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a puzzle book meant to be ripped apart and reassembled to solve a series of puzzles, culminating in the Big Puzzle at the end. I worked on this with a friend, my husband and my son over the course of two 4+ hour sessions. It was difficult, satisfying and completely entertaining. I highly recommend!

[Tom Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

A delightful set of puzzles! Especially enjoyable as a team effort.

[Kira Nerys · Rating 5 out of 5]

We did this puzzle over a family vacation to visit my grandma, as an at-home activity, and it was great for that purpose. We all worked together on the first puzzle--yes, it takes a couple hours--and divvied up the other ones, handing them back and forth. The other puzzles range, in difficulty and required skill sets, so it's great to have a group working together.

A few tips, found after reading what other solvers wrote, if you're interested in puzzle-solving and think this book could be a great activity:
1. It helped us, the first puzzle, to write our matches on post-its and hold them in place that way. We didn't tape it together until we felt confident in everything.
2. Photocopy the Conundrum. Most solvers have to do it multiple times.
3. There's a website--almanaq.com--created to help when you get stuck. We found it most useful in checking if some of the more dubious matches in the first puzzle were correct.

If this kind of book seems like your thing, or you've got a problem-solving group of people meeting up sometime soon, I'd definitely recommend it. The puzzles are lots of fun, a rewarding bonding experience, and a great alternative to sitting around staring at our phones. Bonus: there's a second one coming out from the same author!

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fun team puzzle activity! You tear lots of pages out of the book and solve a whole series of puzzles. The puzzles are creative but are designed to be easy -- we finished the whole thing without getting stuck. This scales well to multiple players, and one of the puzzles seems intended for four players specifically.

[LT · Rating 5 out of 5]

I tackled The Librarian’s Almanaq during my wedding week with six other puzzle-loving friends, and we were hooked from the very first puzzle. We’re all big fans of escape rooms (I'm closing in on 500) and board games, and this book drew us in so completely that we were still solving right up until the moment I was getting my hair and makeup done!

The puzzles are tough -- in the best way. You’ll definitely get stumped, but each breakthrough delivers an incredibly satisfying “aha!” moment. Every chapter contains a standalone puzzle that ultimately contributes to a final meta-solution. We loved dividing and conquering: working in small groups, then swapping puzzles to bring in fresh eyes and new perspectives.

The online hint system was a lifesaver. Although the book notes that no outside knowledge is required, we found that there were a few moments where looking things up online was essential.

If you enjoy clever, challenging puzzles, this book is an absolute blast. It can be done solo or as a pair, but working as a group made the experience even better since everyone brings different strengths and vantage points to the various puzzles.

I’ve already recommended it to several friends and plan to gift it to fellow puzzle lovers.

[Bart Van Loon · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is not really a book to read as one to play with of course, but I'm afraid that this puzzle enthusiast didn't get any further than the first one in this book. I found the opener simply too daunting for a non-American English speaker to continue after that.

[Audrey Doney · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you're looking to sink 20+ hours into some crazy puzzles, this is for you. If one puzzle taking 4 hours seems like a lot, maybe do a different book lol

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cut up a book to solve it? um, no.

[Hesky Fisher · Rating 4 out of 5]

We solved this as a group at my puzzle club and it was a lot of fun. We did one or two puzzles per session of about 1-2 hours each.

All the puzzles were entertaining and good for solving as a group except, maybe, the puzzle with the zombies. That was so convoluted that it helped to have fewer people involved. If I had to do that one again I'd photocopy the pages and solve on those in case we make a mistake and have to start over. Most of the other puzzles we solved on a white board. Also, the page ripping was very time consuming and the group had to entertain themselves while one person did that.

I wish there was a full set of answers somewhere, not just the final solutions to the whole puzzles. For example, while we solved all the puzzles, we still don't know what a couple of the pairs are supposed to be in the opening puzzle. e.g. Pretzel Chart?