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Diabolically Arcane

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Lemony Snippets

16 March, 2015

I'm a huge fan of the Baudelaire series created by Lemony Snicket. As unfortunate events go, they are inspired stories of grim tangents and playful language. Even the titles are worthy of toasting, which you're welcome to do this week.

Pick a book, any book, and see if you can render the title into a clever shred of wordplay. No need to define anything - just enjoy the manipulation of Snicket's alliteration. In order, the wondrous 13 read like so:

Bad Beginning

Reptile Room

Wide Window

Miserable Mill

Austere Academy

Ersatz Elevator

Vile Village

Hostile Hospital

Carnivorous Carnival

Slippery Slope

Grim Grotto

Penultimate Peril

The End

To make a better than bad beginning:

REPTILE ROOM - More 'politer'? Wrong

GRIM GROTTO - Cosgrove gains edge over leading rowing eight in Rome?

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Rewording The Brain

Focus & memory, lateral leaps & logic - every aspect of cognitive health is lit in Rewording The Brain, a book revelling in how puzzles boost your brain. Part 2 equips your brain to conquer any twisty clue, plus the wild crossword finale. Pop science meets neural gameplay, Rewording is rewarding, and out now.

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Rewording The Brain

Care to renew your noodle? Rewording The Brain explores the latest neural studies, seeing how puzzles (and twisty clues) boost your neurons. Part 2 helps you crack such clues, and prep the grey matter for the crossword showcase to finish. More here

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101 Weird Words (and 3 Fakes)

From Ambidextrous to Zugwang, this mini-dictionary teems with rare or alluring words, plus bonus riddles, puzzles and fun word-facts. Dictionary detective will also nab the collection's three fakes. Ideal for late primary schoolers, or word-nuts in general.

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Gargantuan Book of Words

Sneeze words. Fake pasta. Viking slang. Gargantuan is a jumbo jumble of puzzles & games, mazes & quizzes, tailor-made for that wordy wonderkid in your life. Or anyone in love with letters, secret codes, puns, rhymes, emoji & all things languagey. More here 

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Recent Comments

Riddledom Rave

If you missed my riddle chat with Richard Fidler, then feel free to slurp the podcast at http://ab.co/1I9t1x5

Text-speak is creeping into Scrabble. Where do you sit?
OBVS I'm fine with it
Entrenched stuff - like LOL and OMG - but no more.
Words With Friends, maybe. Scrabble, no
Let the 'real' dictionaries decide first
Just the handy stuff, like FAQ and EUW
I mean, WTF?! No way
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