One of the most diabolical literary puzzles in the world returns to make our summer bitter. Alfaguara has rescued El enigma de Caín, the puzzle novel devised by The Observer’s first cryptic crossword inventor, Edward Powys Mathers, known by the pseudonym Torquemada (they say he chose the name of the Spanish inquisitor because he intended to intellectually torture his reading victims …). With its six murders over 100 completely disordered pages, the volume was first published in 1934 by the Gollancz publishing house – the legend speaks of a botched and anarchic printing as the origin of the book – and invited the reader to rearrange it and provide an account of the six persons killed and the names of their murderers with a prize of £15.
Since then, only three people have managed to find the correct combination among the 32 million possible, the last one in 2020, in the midst of a pandemic, and it went viral around the world when a booktoker wallpapered her room with its pages. Now the prize is 1,000 euros for the first to solve it, AIs refrain.
Summers are a time with which we do not know what to do due to the lack of habit of having it, a pasty moment that can now be filled more easily thanks to the notebooks for adults that have become popular in recent years, since the editorial Blackie Books had the idea of ??making a saving rereading of the homework with which the Torquemadas of the school enlivened, in other words, our vacations. Daniel López Valle and Cristóbal Fortúnez are the authors of the Activity Booklets for adults, and the first coordinator of the collection and also author of the Winter Booklet and Kids Booklet, for 7-8 year olds, with which the family has expanded, which is also part of the Golden Notebook for the most… veterans. There are 150 exercises that can take 120 hours to solve, all with a lot of humor and nods to the present, one of the trump cards for the success of this type of modern notebook: who can resist an exercise to relate historical nemeses that begins like this ?: “The rivalry between Ayuso and Casado is the most seedy and the most ridiculous since the dogs fell out with the vacuum cleaners”? (Volume 11, the last).
Eleven years ago, Daniel López Valle, a journalist, writer and hard-working contestant on Saber y Ganar, explained to Culture/s, they had the idea of ??doing “something full of curiosities and content”, which materialized when they realized that summer was the most appropriate time for that of time and relaxation, “that gave us the clue to recover the spirit of the vacation notebooks that we made when we were little, but without traumas or obligations”. It sold so well that they freaked out at the thought of putting out another one the following summer: would they have any more ideas? They had them and 200,000 copies have already been sold, it has triumphed in Italy and Holland and will soon be released in Germany.
In these years the Notebook has evolved, for example, seeing that there were many people who did it as a couple or with friends, “we realized that the Notebook served to bring people closer and have fun together, so we tried to enhance this effect doing exercises and games specially designed to be done with other people”. Another aspect that has changed is that before the sections were separate, history, literature, cinema, “but that limited us a bit and could give the feeling that we didn’t want to mix things, that’s why we eliminated it and now in the Notebook you can find Shakespeare alongside Kim Kardashian or Marie Curie alongside Paquirrín. Everything serves to play, to laugh and to learn”.
New proposals from other publishers have appeared for in recent years. Lonely Planet has released its second Activity Book for traveling minds by Raquel Piñeiro and Bea Lozano, the first was last year, when the pandemic situation was still moving to solve the more than 100 exercises from the sofa at home, issues such as behavior of chimpanzees in Tanzania or the course of the Mekong River. An addition this year is the Rural Gathered Games, in which Virginia Mendoza and Narcís R.E. they put the knowledge of urbanites to the test, because not for nothing is it subtitled Yes, you can also leave the city. The suspense is sure: does anyone have the slightest idea when to plant a cabbage or a garrofón (not to be confused with jug, eh). A must.
More notebooks, those of the publishing house Rubio, an old acquaintance who helped us improve mathematics and now propose problems of calculation and concentration. In Catalan, Columna published in 2016 two Summer Notebooks for adults only, Muntanya y Platja, both by Àngels Navarro, which have not had continuity. The book del paraulògic has also appeared in Catalan, presenting puzzles, games, “a thousand words to learn and a lot of humor”, by Jordi Palou and Pau Vidal (Ara Llibres).
And for those who are nervous, that is, everyone, Alienta publishes Lettering for the soul by Valentina Buso, calligraphy and exercises to relax, although some will be more reassured by this new installment of Destroza este Diario (Paidós), now smaller to allow us the second part of the title: everywhere, the author is Keri Smith.
Another summer option is puzzle books. We highlight Crime against Shakespeare, by Jesús Torres and Giuseppe Potenza in Lunwerg. A very well planned and carefully edited volume, with QR codes to help you move forward, or at least not go back, and save the life of the English bard and learn a lot about 17th century England along the way. More enigmas, these to be solved in a minute, if possible, in the Alma publishing house. Get bored? Never.
