Bellos Alex - The Language Lover’s Puzzle Book: Lexical perplexities and cracking conundrums from across the globe

From the bestselling author of Alex's Adventures in Numberland and Can You Solve My Problems? comes a fascinating, hugely entertaining collection of puzzles for crossword addicts and language-lovers of all stripes. ‘The only puzzle book I’ve seen that manages to befuddle both sides of the brain at the same time.’DARA Ó BRIAIN‘Such fun, full of unexpected ideas and charmingly written.’TIM HARFORDThe Language Lover's Puzzle Book is a book of more than 100 surprising and entertaining puzzles that celebrate the amazing diversity of the world of words and language.Featuring a huge variety of ancient, modern and even invented languages, this collection of problems will introduce you to unusual alphabets and scripts, curious vocabularies and phonologies, and global variations in simple behaviours like counting, telling the time, and naming children. Whether you are a crossword solver, a code-breaker or a Scrabble addict, these puzzles are guaranteed to twist your tongue and sharpen your mind.'For all the language and puzzle fans in your life!' GRETCHEN McCULLOCH'A cornucopia of ingenious and insightful challenges.' DAVID CRYSTAL'This compendium of puzzles is a great idea.' MICHAEL ROSEN'You'll love what Alex Bellos has done here.' GYLES BRANDRETH'Tantalisting.'THE ECONOMIST'The perfect way to pass the time.' BBC SCIENCE FOCUS

Review

The only puzzle book I’ve seen that manages to befuddle both sides of the brain at the same time. -- Dara Ó BriainI am a sucker for Alex Bellos's books – they’re just such fun, full of unexpected ideas and charmingly written. If you like puzzles this is a delightful and original approach and you’ll pick up a lot of quirky delights along the way. -- Tim HarfordThe Language Lover’s Puzzle Book is exactly the sort of book I wish had been available to me as a budding linguist. I recommend it for all the language and puzzle fans in your life! -- Gretchen McCulloch ― New York Times–bestselling author of BECAUSE INTERNETA cornucopia of ingenious and insightful challenges, each with a bonus commentary about the fascinating diversity of the world's languages, all presented in a friendly and engaging style. The title is exactly right. It's the perfect companion for anyone who loves puzzles and languages. -- David CrystalLanguage is a puzzle, so this compendium of language puzzles is a great idea; and the great thing about puzzles is they give us problems that we didn’t even know were problems. -- Michael RosenIf you love a puzzle – and you love language – you’ll love what Alex Bellos has done here. -- Gyles BrandrethNot just a puzzle collection, but an introduction to the science of distilling regularities from the weird ways in which languages behave . . . Many beginners, after the buzz of Mr Bellos's puzzles, may also fall in love with the joys of [linguistics] . . . tantalising. ― The EconomistBlessedly voluminous . . . [it] will delight autodidacts: here we may acquaint ourselves with the Shavian phonetic alphabet, Jacob Linzbach’s universal writing system “Transcendental Algebra”, and more. ― Times Literary SupplementFor those of us who love Countdown and crosswords, Guardian puzzler Alex Bellos’s newest book of puzzles is the perfect way to pass the time. ― BBC Science FocusYou can probably think of someone who needs a present for these 'Oh my god it's getting dark early and the world is full of germs' times. This is it! This book has been our after-dinner entertainment for four nights now. The puzzles tickle my brain in nice ways. -- Lynne Murphy, Professor of Linguistics, University of Sussex

About the Author

Alex Bellos is a grandmaster of the puzzling world, brilliant on all things cryptic. His bestselling, award-winning books include Alex’s Adventures in Numberland, Alex Through the Looking-Glass and Can You Solve My Problems?, and have been translated into more than twenty languages. He is also the coauthor of two mathematical colouring books and the children’s series Football School. His YouTube videos have been seen by more than twenty million people, and he writes a popular maths and puzzle blog for the Guardian. @alexbellos