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Riddledom: 101 riddles and their stories
Why are ladies like arrows?When is a bird not a bird?What do you call a nun with a washing machine on her head?Welcome to the weird new word adventure from David Astle, plunging into the realm of riddles, chasing down and prising open 101 curious questions from around the planet. A mindtrip across time and place, Riddledom uncovers relics from over 50 cultures, delving into language and deception, sampling Pompeii walls and Dothraki warriors. Readers can unravel each mini-chapter, wrestling with riddles from Wonderland or Zanzibar, Oedipus Rex or Harry Potter. Come meet French acrobats, coffee slaves, lusty maids and many more along the way. Riddledom is your chance to roam Tasmania and Mongolia, Fiji and Peru, seeking riddles on clay tablets and Popsicle sticks.As David opens 'If you think riddles are solely the stuff of schoolyards and Christmas crackers, you're about to have your head refurbished.'
- GenresNonfictionPuzzles
320 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 1, 2015
5 people are currently reading
45 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
June 8, 2017
This is a book of 101 riddles — or actually, 101 riddles, plus a social and cultural history of each. Here is where you can find out what the New York Knicks have to do with the chicken crossing the road, how scholars deciphered Beatrix Potter's coded diary to reveal that Squirrel Nutkin was based on an annoying woman she met on a train, and the intricacies of translating word play into (or from) other languages. It's a fun book to dip into in short bursts. As an added bonus, there are question and answer riddles running along the bottom of each page for you to annoy and delight your loved ones, e.g.
Which has more legs: a horse or no horse?
Or probably the best joke about Friends and sculling you will ever find:
Why did Courtney Cox?
Which has more legs: a horse or no horse?
Or probably the best joke about Friends and sculling you will ever find:
Why did Courtney Cox?
February 23, 2018
It was difficult to get to the answers of riddles, would have been better if Astle had simply solution: chicken crossed the road as an example. Found it fairly ok to read, except I really don't want to know about the authors life just the riddle and the solution. Otherwise not bad, would have rated it better if answers were easily obtained instead of reading a lot of dribble.
February 21, 2017
All Australians into cryptic crosswords eventually try to match wits with the infamous setter DA. David Astle has a fiendish mind and a talent for obfuscation that creates brilliant puzzles that solvers relish.
In Riddledom, Astle has tackled something different. The book is a treatise on riddles, going into their history, the role they play in different cultures, different categories and types of riddles, etc. There is a lot of interesting tit-bits; for example, the knock-knock riddle may have originated from the porter scene in Macbeth.
On top of that, Astle encourages page-turning by posing a riddle on every odd page; the reader has to keep reading to get the answer. Some of these are actually pretty funny (Which computer can sing?) but most are groaners. Since many are translations from very different cultural settings, often they don't make sense at all.
I think David Astle has taken on a big subject here and made a fair fist of it, but I don't think he has created anything exceptional. Riddledom is OK as a book to dip into, but it's not that compelling.
In Riddledom, Astle has tackled something different. The book is a treatise on riddles, going into their history, the role they play in different cultures, different categories and types of riddles, etc. There is a lot of interesting tit-bits; for example, the knock-knock riddle may have originated from the porter scene in Macbeth.
On top of that, Astle encourages page-turning by posing a riddle on every odd page; the reader has to keep reading to get the answer. Some of these are actually pretty funny (Which computer can sing?) but most are groaners. Since many are translations from very different cultural settings, often they don't make sense at all.
I think David Astle has taken on a big subject here and made a fair fist of it, but I don't think he has created anything exceptional. Riddledom is OK as a book to dip into, but it's not that compelling.
October 5, 2015
This book is a weird one, as it technically feels like it shouldn't exist. It mixes riddles from cultures that don't really make sense even in context (though probably could have, if a few more words were spent on them) with the likes of riddles using the language of Harry Potter and Game of Thrones.
This book shouldn't really appeal to anyone... and yet, it did to me. Sure it didn't make sense to treat it as a puzzle book, questions and answers, and it left enough ambiguity to not really be useful as a history of riddles, but in the end it's a book about riddles. This may have been intentional.
I don't know that I'd feel comfortable recommending it, and my rating isn't based on that fact, but if you want something to inspire your own riddle crafting, or an unusual curio in your collection, or if I knew your mind worked like mind, maybe I'd recommend it. As it stands, the 4 stars represent my take, rather than what I think you'd think, nameless reader, and for that it stands.
This book shouldn't really appeal to anyone... and yet, it did to me. Sure it didn't make sense to treat it as a puzzle book, questions and answers, and it left enough ambiguity to not really be useful as a history of riddles, but in the end it's a book about riddles. This may have been intentional.
I don't know that I'd feel comfortable recommending it, and my rating isn't based on that fact, but if you want something to inspire your own riddle crafting, or an unusual curio in your collection, or if I knew your mind worked like mind, maybe I'd recommend it. As it stands, the 4 stars represent my take, rather than what I think you'd think, nameless reader, and for that it stands.
June 19, 2016
Heard the author talk on the podcast "The Conversation Hour" and was interested. A book with a lot of promise (the title is so promising) but failed to live up to its expectation. Its almost like the author wants the book to be part of a meta-puzzle. Its like a spoon bender telling you it is fake but not showing you clearly how he did it. Frustrating and disappointing. Donated.
May 4, 2016
The words whiz from "Letters & Numbers" on SBS TV investigates 101 riddles from early time to modern day and from all over the world. Each chapter starts with a riddle and the answer is revealed (although sometimes not to obvious).
A good read from someone who knows what he is talking about.
A good read from someone who knows what he is talking about.
April 28, 2020
2.5 stars
I might have enjoyed this book more if it just sat on the coffee table and I picked it up and at random read different riddles, but reading it cover to cover felt like a bit of a slog... and I gave up.
I might have enjoyed this book more if it just sat on the coffee table and I picked it up and at random read different riddles, but reading it cover to cover felt like a bit of a slog... and I gave up.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews