Crossworld: One Man's Journey into America's Crossword Obsession

by Marc Romano

Sixty-four million people do it at least once a week. Nabokov wrote about it. Bill Clinton even did it in the White House. The crossword puzzle has arguably been our national obsession since its birth almost a century ago. Now, in Crossworld , writer, translator, and lifelong puzzler Marc Romano goes where no Number 2 pencil has gone before, as he delves into the minds of the world’s cleverest crossword creators and puzzlers, and sets out on his own quest to join their ranks.

While covering the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament for the Boston Globe , Romano was amazed by the skill of the competitors and astonished by the cast of characters he came across—like Will Shortz, beloved editor of the New York Times puzzle and the only academically accredited “enigmatologist” (puzzle scholar); Stanley Newman, Newsday ’s puzzle editor and the fastest solver in the world; and Brendan Emmett Quigley, the wickedly gifted puzzle constructer and the Virgil to Marc’s Dante in his travels through the crossword inferno.

Chronicling his own journey into the world of puzzling—even providing tips on how to improve crosswording skills—Romano tells the story of crosswords and word puzzles themselves, and of the colorful people who make them, solve them, and occasionally become consumed by them.

But saying this is a book about puzzles is to tell only half the story. It is also an explanation into what crosswords tell us about ourselves—about the world we live in, the cultures that nurture us, and the different ways we think and learn. If you’re a puzzler, Crossworld will enthrall you. If you have no idea why your spouse send so much time filling letters into little white squares, Crossworld will tell you – and with luck, save your marriage.


CROSSWORLD | by Marc Romano

ACROSS
1. I am hopelessly addicted to the New York Times crossword puzzle.
2. Like many addicts, I was reluctant to admit I have a problem.
3. The hints I was heading for trouble came, at first, only occasionally.
4. The moments of panic when I realized that I might not get my fix on a given day.
5. The toll on relationships.
6. The strained friendships.
7. The lost hours I could have used to do something more productive.
8. It gets worse, too.

DOWN
1. You’re not just playing a game.
2. You’re constantly broadening your intellectual horizons.
3. You spend a lot of time looking at and learning about the world around you.
4. You have to if you want to develop the accumulated store of factual information you’ll need to get through a crossword puzzle.
5. Puzzle people are nice because they have to be.
6. The more you know about the world, the more you tend to give all things in it the benefit of the doubt before deciding if you like them or not.
7. I’m not saying that all crossword lovers are honest folk dripping with goodness.
8. I would say, though, that if I had to toss my keys and wallet to someone before jumping off a pier to save a drowning girl, I’d look for the fellow in the crowd with the daily crossword in his hand.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Puzzles, Pop Culture, Games

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Kelly (Maybedog) · Rating 2 out of 5]

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Interesting but the false modesty and arrogance overwhelm, October 1, 2007

I really want to rate this 2.5 stars.

Do you have a friend who says things like, "Yes, I may have gotten 800 on the math SAT but I only got an embarrassing 690 verbal?" If so, then you might be able to tolerate Romano's prose. If not, be forewarned: unless you can complete the Saturday New York Times puzzle in 10 minutes, you will be put in your place over and over by his false modesty. He says things along the lines of "It once took me a humiliating 20 minutes to do a Saturday NYT puzzle." If it's humiliating for him, what's that mean to the rest of us? He goes further to make-fun of and out-right condemn anyone who doesn't follow is own code of crossword conduct. If you look a word up, you're cheating and he can't imagine why you would do that. (Perhaps so you can learn words you don't know? Maybe to fill in a tough spot in the puzzle so you can continue to finish the rest of it and still have fun?) He implies that this is akin to just copying the answers from the next day's paper.

There are also "facts" that I really have to question. He says he can finish a Monday puzzle in something like 60 seconds. It would take longer than that just to write the answers down if someone were reading the clues to you. Add in the time to flick your eyes from the clues to the grid and it becomes absurd. I can speed read but your comprehension deceases when you do. In a crossword puzzle, there's no context to help you when you misread a word. One letter difference changes the meaning entirely. In addition, even the easiest puzzles have clues that have more than one answer that is commonly used (genetic material can be RNA or DNA; mid-east leader can be EMIR or AMIR or any of a number of different spellings; there are several five letter "GREEK LETTER"s.) It takes time to go back. Even doing a "World's Easiest Crossword"-level puzzle that uses a 6th grade vocabulary and no words over 5 letters and reading only the across clues (not needing to read the down clues) would take me more than 60 seconds to fill out if my writing were to actually be remotely legible and in the correct little boxes. (But then, I'm a moron-- I'm only a Wednesday/Thursday-level solver.) I guess Romano is some freaky genius who not only can read and write in tiny boxes elsewhere on the page at the same time but he has ESP and always knows exactly what the puzzle author was thinking when composing the crossword.

Given that, there is a lot of interesting information about the history of the New York Times Crossword puzzle in general and Will Shortz, its current editor, in particular. I came to respect, admire and actually like Shortz, who comes off as a nice, reasonable, easy-going fellow. There's information about who creates these teasers, the difference in puzzles across the Atlantic, and the anatomy of a puzzle. I also found the description of what a crossword puzzle tournament is like and the quirky people who attend to be entertaining.

I found myself over and over wishing this had been written by someone else who couldn't possibly compete in the tournament (or would come in last) or that Romano had left his own role out of it and was more objective. While personal anecdotes and opinions can add to a story, make it more human, his arrogance and randiness (he is constantly on the prowl) are not just distracting, they're offensive. Instead of being appropriately impressed by and interested in all the contestants who compete (I think even the person who comes in last place is probably pretty darn good) I could only focus on him. By the time I finished the book I almost gave up solving puzzles because I felt like any reasonable person would realize I am too stupid and ignorant for real crossword puzzles and would be better off sticking to E-Z word searches and connect-the-dots.

There's no doubt Romano is extremely intelligent-- he is this expert solver and he implies English isn't even his native language. But does he have to rub it in every other sentence?

Last thoughts: the book was a little longer than it needed to be but it does include almost all of the puzzles from the competition, which was fabulous. I would have liked to see a few more puzzles, perhaps a sample from the New York Times for each day of the week and puzzles from some of the other publications (very briefly) mentioned like the Washington Post. While I certainly didn't buy the book for the puzzles, it would be very interesting to compare methodologies. I would have liked Romano to spend a little more time discussing puzzles in other papers. Also, acknowledging that people have to start somewhere and encouraging people to improve their skills with recommendations on how to do so would have been much more appropriate than his constant bragging. Then he might help people discover just how fun it is to do this pastime, recruiting people to the game rather than making people feel like outsiders who shouldn't even try.

One more thing: He denigrates Sudoku as being just a "math puzzle" (what's wrong with math puzzles?) but Sudoku has absolutely nothing to do with math. There is no math involved at all. Any 9 characters or shapes would do. I've seen some using letters. Numbers are just easiest for us to recognize and pattern quickly, not to mention that it crosses language barriers by using Anglo-Saxon numerals which are more commonly used than the English alphabet. Sudoku is first and foremost a logic puzzle and could appeal to even a word smith who hasn't completed 3rd grade math.

So, to sum up, I don't recommend this book. Watch the movie "Wordplay" about the tournament. Or better yet, Will Sholtz wrote a companion book to the movie Wordplay: The Official Companion Bookwhich I haven't read but might be a better insight in to the tourney. I can't believe it could be worse.

[Jen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Anyone know a 6 letter word for a smug, mildly chauvinistic, painfully self-aware writer? Oh, yeah....ROMANO. I heart crosswords and loved the movie Word Play. Many of the puzzle people in the movie are clever and likeable. Can't say the same for this author.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you're one of those people whose eagerness to get to the New York Times crossword puzzle every day sometimes worries you a little, you'll want to have a look at this book, which profiles some of the more puzzle-obsessed among us. The book isn't without its problems: for example, if you're annoyed by an intrusive narrative voice, you'll want to steel yourself for Romano's -- he's quite taken with himself, and rarely lets five pages go by without his reminding you that he's a polymath who speaks a few languages and went to Yale. Also, I think Romano overstates the popularity of crosswords -- if there's such a phenomenon as "America's crossword obsession," I sure haven't noticed it. (Sudoku, sure, but crosswords?) Still, this book gives an engaging history of the Times crossword, details the process for building the puzzles and profiles some of the builders (most notably Brendan Emmett Quigley, who's revered among many solvers), and also gives some pretty good tips for honing your puzzling skills.

[Stephanie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am trying really hard to like this book. The writing is very stilted and sometimes downright convoluted, making it less enjoyable than I thought it would be. And, I'm not sure if it's supposed to be reportage or memoir. It should be way more interesting than it is, and yet I keep going with it.

How's that for faint praise?




I give up....Life is too short to waste on crappy books.

[Pearl · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did enjoy parts of the book, especially the profiles of Will Shortz and other prominent figures in the crossword world. On the other hand, I found the author pretentious, self-absorbed, and mildly sexist; I was also so very uninterested in his creepy thoughts about every woman he was attracted to.

[Arianna · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book certainly made me crossword-mad again; I downloaded a crossword app to my (Android) phone - Shortyz, I believe it was? And spent quite a bit of time playing in between reading sections of Crossworld. However, the writing itself kind of bothered me - Mr. Romano just kept sounding way too self-congratulatory and self-involved; I got the impression he was trying to be self-deprecating, but he came up short and just sounded like rather too much of a braggart, to me. His writing felt pretentious, and he loved telling stories about who he had rubbed elbows with. I did, however, appreciate that he made a point to use quite a few of the most common crossword fill words in his writing - at least, I noticed a bunch of them smattered throughout the book! Either it was a case of him being far too entrenched in crosswording, or he did it intentionally - either way, I appreciated it. But his writing in general felt like it tried too hard, and I often would get lost in his compound sentences and asides, to the point where I would have to restart paragraphs in order to get where he had initially been going with them. Romano tried to squeeze too much into each sentence, instead of breaking things up to make them more palatable. I am not saying I don't appreciate a good, long sentence, or that I am too dumb to get it, or that they were run-ons, no: just that they were too long-winded, I think. The writing could have been smoothed out a bit. However, I did enjoy the overall concept of the book - it was nothing like I expected. It felt more like a journey through the world of cruciverbaling, which is what the author intended from his subtitle. And the ending really tied everything up into a neat bow, and made me appreciate the entire book a bit more. For now, though, I don't want to talk anymore about crosswords - I just want to go do one!

[Jung · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a daily NYT crossword-er and weekly NPR Sunday Puzzle listener, I picked up this book to learn about the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. After finishing, I realize I probably could've just read parts of chapters five and seven to get what I'd hoped for. The writer seemed to fashion himself a cruciverbalist Hunter S Thompson in relaying his first day of ACPT experiences through an Ativan-induced haze. His tone was arrogant, entitled, condescending, and a strong reminder of why I usually don't read books written by white men (it's only my third in two years, after a history of the Black Panther Party and a general overview of Judaism - both of which included much less personal commentary and exactly zero pick up artist play-by-play). I enjoyed reading about Will Shortz's career and interests in puzzles. For others wanting to learn more about the ACPT, I'd recommend any number of Internet articles and thinkpieces that can be found through a Google search.

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

I admit that I cannot do the Sunday NYT crossword in under 30 minutes. Be that as it may, it is fun and interesting to peek into the world of those people who create and those who can complete these puzzles. The Stamford Marriott is home to the Annual Crossword Tournament that Will Shortz created, and the book takes a look at the 2004 Tournament. While there was a movie that also did the same thing, this book comes complete with the evil puzzles! It is a fascinating and has given me added respect for those who complete and create these puzzles. Today I look at puzzles differently and seemed to be a bit faster today. I don't think I am bound for Stamford, but this is fun!

[Zahnii (Suzanne) Artis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have become obsessed with crosswords and enjoyed learning of the Stamford tournament and crossword culture. Romano seems obnoxious and sexist, which detracted a bit. Loved learning about Will Shortz, Brendan Emmett Quigley, the rules of crosswords, about the lingo and work of constructors and some tips to solving.

[Dm32blue · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting read. I never knew there was a major contest every year for the NY Times crossword puzzle... and in Connecticut for that matter. I enjoyed the story feel of this docu-journal and the history it gives of how the crossword puzzle evolved. It's not too long or hard reading and makes for a nice quick read in between fiction tomes on your list.

[Leo Susana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cool book that's gotten me into Crosswords. Made me dive into it.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well I really enjoyed parts of this book, in spite of the fact the author seems like an arrogant sexist creeper douchebag.

[Holly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked it because of the subject matter - crosswords have become my second half of the pandemic hobby.

[Brian Ayres · Rating 4 out of 5]

What is it with authors writing about their neurosis with games and puzzles? First came the Scrabble obsession in the book World Freak. Now Marc Romano bows down to the Gods of crossword puzzles in his quest to finish high at the American Crossword Puzzle tournament.

It wasn't that I didn't enjoy the book. As a crossword puzzle doer, I can appreciate the skill and cognitive speed of some of the greatest puzzle solvers in the world, but Romano's lack of depth on the characters, other than Crossword God Will Shortz, made for a very boring book.

Spliced with stories from the 2004 tournament in Stamford, CT, Romano's work is part history and strategy of the crossword puzzle, including the differences in skill and difficulty between American and British puzzles.

Romano's main strength was how he provided a behind-the-scenes look in not only solving but construction of puzzles from the grid, to the fill to the cluing, which relies much on whoever the editor of the puzzle may be. In fact, Romano uses many pages to illustrate how Shortz has changed the face of crosswording by ramping up the difficulty in the puzzles from Monday to Saturday by adjusting the clues for the words. He does the same thing at the tournament for the three classification finals. Each skill level is given the same fill but different clues.

Overall, the book was entertaining, but maybe there are just not as many eccentric personalities in crossword solving as there is in spelling bees and Scrabble tournaments to keep it interesting. Romano kept repeating his mantra about how honest and solitary the crossword puzzle solver was. Surely out of the supposed 64 million doers a week Romano cites (an inflated number I'm sure), there could be someone more inerestnig than the gifted but boring cast Romano includes.

[Jo · Rating 2 out of 5]

For the crossword-obsessed individual, Marc Romano shares his journey into the world of crosswords. He begins with a history of crosswords and then details his personal journey to competing at the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. Scattered throughout are some of his theories about how to become a pro crossword solver and the moral superiority of those who engage in crosswords.

There were a few interesting things about this book. I learned a bit about how crosswords are created, the terminology of crosswords, and the insane level of skill that some people have at solving crosswords.

Other than that, I didn’t care much for this book. I was expecting something a bit more lighthearted and funny. But…the first couple chapters on the history of crosswords were a bit of a snooze. Then Romano seems to take himself pretty seriously in the tournament portion of the book, alternately relaying his trials and triumphs in the tournament portion, in between advancing his theories about how people who attend crossword tournaments are more ethical than the rest of the population and have developed their awesome crossword solving abilities through a complicated evolutionary process. He also makes a lot of side comments about how crosswords “should” be done (alone…without the assistance of Google…etc.) which I found to be irritating.

Added to that, the whole thing just seems a bit uneven and meandering. He focuses on a few specific people in the crossword industry to the exclusion of others, and I would rather have gotten a cross-section of the various different types of people who attend these types of tournaments.

Ultimately, I think Romano was picturing his audience for this book as the “elite” crossword-doers of the world, not those of us who enjoy taking a stab at the Monday or Tuesday version in the New York Times. My interest just wasn’t that deep.

[Susan B. · Rating 3 out of 5]

How much of a nerd am I? Not only do I do the NY Times crossword everyday, now I've also read an entire book about crossword culture. This book provides some interesting details about the emergence of crosswords in the early part of the 20th century, the way that their structure and norms vary nationally, and the style of various editors of the NY Times puzzle over time (including Will Shortz's decisions to make the puzzle steadily more difficult through the week and to include pop culture and sports as legitimate clues). Perhaps most interesting were the sections on the annual American Crossword Puzzle Tournament held annually in Stamford CT. About 500 people attend, falling into 3 different flights, the C flight being pegged roughly to Monday and Tuesday puzzles, B to Thursdays and A to Saturdays. The best solvers can do an A level difficulty puzzle that is the size of a Sunday puzzle (21x21) in 5-10 minutes! While I enjoyed learning all of this, I have to say that I did not like the author's writing style. He jumped all over the place in terms of topic (perhaps that is how great puzzlers think?), and was too willing to congratulating himself on his own puzzling prowess, while at the same time providing a lot of excuses for his less than top flight performance. Still, I enjoyed the book, especially the second half which focussed on the tournament. I'd love to go sometime and see what it's like in person. "Wordplay," a very good documentary on this topic that was out a few years ago, would be an excellent companion to this book.

[Sara · Rating 2 out of 5]

One thing really stood out early on in this book: author Marc Romano loves himself almost as much as he loves crossword puzzles. He gives a good history of crossword puzzles, of their entry into newspapers, of the differences between American and British styles. After several mentions though, this becomes an annoying comparison.

Romano does bring the readers along into the world of top crossword puzzlers, but only as far as he is interested in going. It seems like is someone is going to write a book about competitive puzzlers, they'd work hard to give readers a full view. Instead, Romano tells his audience about which book he reads at the hotel bar, the young girl he ogles, forgetting to eat for two days and his search for the "cool kids" at the event. These are not the interesting parts of a crossword puzzle tournament.

The descriptions of the people Romano enjoyed, primarily New York Times crossword editor Will Shortz and puzzle constructor Brendan Emmett Quigley, are fun to read. But for people really interested in the crossword tournament world, watch the documentary "Wordplay," which provides a much fuller and more pleasant take on the phenomenon.

[Lain · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love crosswords, and I'd venture to say that anyone who picks up a book like this would have to be a cruciverbalist (to use Romano's word) as well. That said, it's unclear why the author spent so much of this book addressing his words to those who have never attempted a puzzle -- in turns justifying his love for them and trying to explain how to complete one.

The parts of this book that really shone for me were when Romano lost his supercilious attitude (does he need to remind us AGAIN that Will Shortz has a tendency to hyphenate adverbial clauses???) and simply told us what he saw and experienced at the tournament.

He lost me numerous times with long, meandering sentences and hifalutin words that I didn't have the energy to look up in the dictionary. I was also turned off with his over-inflated ego that seemed to interpret any male as a threat to his manhood and any woman as a possible sexual conquest.

All told, I did enjoy the descriptions of the constructors, the process of creating a puzzle, and some of the personalities behind it

[Ensiform · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author, a Yale graduate, writer and translator, investigates America’s love for crosswords and enters himself into the Crossword Championships at Stamford. An interesting piece, perhaps a bit more superficial than it promises to be. The scenes of drama at Stamford are the heart of the book. The interviews with such cruciverbalist luminaries as Will Shortz, Brendan Emmett Quigley, and Stanley Newman (the fastest solver around, once beating a constructor at his own puzzle!) also give the book a little more added insight.

Romano tries to get into what really makes puzzles and puzzle lovers tick, but I don’t think he ever really succeeds. He doesn’t understand cryptics at all, for one thing, and he also makes very stupid errors at Stamford; I think this shows that he doesn’t really have a handle on his subject in the first place, so any real insights elude him. It’s an entertaining read, but very lightweight.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like pretty much every other review here, I'll say that parts of the book were interesting and enjoyable but the author's choice of tone could be quite irritating. For someone who repeatedly tells us how smart he is, it seems like an obviously dumb move to take a prescription anti-anxiety drug you haven't been prescribed and have never tried before the night before your big competition begins. It also seems beyond petty to bring up Will Shortz's small grammar mistakes not once, but twice, when Shortz has been generous with his time for the author's interviews. If you're really passionate about crosswords you might like this. If you're a dabbler I'd take a pass. I like to pick up a puzzle now and then but really don't need to know about how to train to reduce the time I spend on them. After all, to me it's a leisure activity and thankfully I don't have to time my leisure.

[Erin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I bought this book hoping that it would be the WORD FREAK of the crossword community. It's not. To be fair, the author states right off that the book is really about him, and boy is it ever. The author went to Yale. We know because he mentions it. A lot. The author is reading Pynchon. We know because he mentions it. A lot. The author does crossword puzzles better than 90% of people. We know because....you get the picture. Ugh.

The good news is that there is still room for a well-written book about the characters that make up the crossword community, and I really hope that someone reads WORD FREAK (at least the author copped to that) and decides to use it as inspiration for a better book. This slight volume just didn't do it for me.

[Rebekah · Rating 3 out of 5]

A look at the history and culture of crosswords with emphasis on the construction and the competition. I had seen the documentary about the Stamford competition, and wondered what sort of take the book would have. It was very informative. I enjoyed the discussion about the history of crosswords and what separates American, British, and Russian crosswords. The tone was light and sometimes funny which made it a good read, though I'm not a competitive cruciverbalist, nor will I ever be. I am one of those people who is lucky to get through Monday's NY Times crosswords. But I appreciate a peek into the minds of those who can get through a Saturday puzzle in under 10 minutes.

[Wendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A non-fiction book about the history and current craze of crossword puzzles. Author Morano obviously idolizes Will Shortz and has great things to say about him. I enjoyed the descriptions of Will, his house, and the inner working of the crossword competitions in Stamford, CT. I found Morano to be a pompous, self-absorbed, unlikeable guy - he continuously sprinkles in comments about how bright he is while throwing in obscure words to impress the reader. The parts about the crossword puzzles and competitions are worth reading - I just wish that Morano had not interjected himself into so much of the book.

[Bookmarks Magazine]

Some critics saw Romano, who frequently injects himself into his narrative, as irritating and biased. ("I am hopelessly addicted to The New York Times crossword puzzle," he writes, thereby never distancing himself from his subject.) Small factual mistakes will annoy attentive readers; after all, crossword puzzles are about the details. Romano's writing style also irked some critics, who viewed it as clunky and at times elliptical. Yet despite Romano's focus and style problems, Crossworld

[Beckie · Rating 2 out of 5]

i picked this up because it was on the shelf next to the excellent word freak, and i enjoyed the crossword documentary, wordplay, although not as much as the scrabble one. unfortunately, i didn't really like this book. i found the author's tone and frequent irrelevant side notes about things like the women he found attractive kind of annoying.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fascinating look into the obsessive lives of crossword editors, lovers, and professional puzzle solvers that gets completely hijacked by the author's relentless need to illustrate to the reader his own innate hipness. We get it Mr. Romano... Gravity's Rainbow is your favorite book. You mention it twice. We know you're smart. Now stand aside and let your subject speak for itself.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

What I learned is that I don't like being condescended to because I'm not very skilled at the NYT crossword. The author constantly ridicules those people who do Monday/Tuesday (easier) puzzles... the information was interesting, but this book was only so-so for me, not Good and especially not Great.

[Roberta · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book dealt mainly with crossword puzzle construction, the annual American Crossword Tournament in Stamford, CT, the NY Times Crossword Puzzle, and puzzle editor Will Shortz. Much as I enjoyed this book and much as I love doing crossword puzzles, I don't think I'd ever want to compete. Too much pressure. I think it would take all the fun out of it.

[Theresa Miller]

So far, this isn't as good as Cruciverbalism, but still interesting.

I mean, I'm a NERD!

Update: On the way to bowling with friends tonight, I started reading about the tournament. By the time I got to the bowling alley and found out that the scoring screens also show the speed of your bowling ball, I had an urge to be a little competitive. I think this is funny.

[Violetta · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author's writing style may suit itself to reporting, but not to writing a full-length book. Very repetitive, self-congratulatory, and ultimately without greater merit. Sorry Marc, but you would have done better to just go ahead and include some photocopied crosswords to at least give entertainment value.