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How to choose a Sudoku book
Many people buy a Sudoku book without thinking about what makes one right for them. Later, many of them are disappointed: the grids are too small or too big, the puzzles too easy or too hard, or they do not know what to do when they get stuck. This guide collects the most important things to check when you choose a Sudoku book.
Book size and grid size
This is the most important aspect, and the one most often overlooked. On a computer screen a book may look fine, but you cannot feel how big its grids are, and when the book arrives, the size is often not quite right. Print our free sample and feel what it is like to solve on different grid sizes.
Difficulty
“Easy” and “Hard” mean something different to every author and in every book. Some books grade their Sudokus only by how many numbers are given at the start, which says little about the real difficulty. Choose a book that explains its levels. The best books tie each level to the solving methods a person needs, or to a score calculated from those methods, not to what a computer needs to solve it.
Printed solutions
Almost all books give the filled-in solution grids. Some print them in the book; others put them online, to read on the web or in an app. Printed solutions are always available, and you do not need your phone to check an answer. Books with printed solutions tend to cost a little more, because they need more pages.
Help when you are stuck
A solution grid tells you the answer, but not how to get there. When you are stuck, what helps is the next step and the reason for it. A few books offer step-by-step explanations online, move by move.
Method explanations
Each new level requires new solving methods. A book that explains them with examples lets you learn while you solve, without looking for help elsewhere.
Price per Sudoku
Price per Sudoku matters: you want as many puzzles for your money as possible. But it comes only after the aspects above. A cheap book is not a good choice if its grids are too small for you. Decide first which of the points above matter to you, and compare prices only among the books that meet them.
What Bralosma books offer
The same points as above, and how our books answer each of them.
Book size and grid size
Books in 8.5 × 11 in and 6 × 9 in, with 12, 6 or 2 Sudokus per page: grids from 2.1 in (55 mm) to 3.5 in (90 mm). Our free sample prints each grid size at true size. Get the free sample →
Difficulty
Levels named by their solving methods. Each book lists its levels and the methods each one needs. See our level system →
Printed solutions
Every solution is printed at the back of the book.
Help when you are stuck
A free app shows every Sudoku in our books solved step by step, with the reason for each move. The QR code in the book opens it. See the app →
Method explanations
Every book explains the methods of its levels in detail, with worked examples.
Price per Sudoku
1200, 650+ or 270 Sudokus per book. The more puzzles in a book, the lower the price per Sudoku; the 270 books cost more per puzzle, for the largest grids. See the books →
Our book and grid sizes
Pencil marks need room. The harder the Sudoku, the more small numbers you write into a cell before you can rule them out.
12 per page
Book 8.5 × 11 in (21.6 × 27.9 cm)
Grid 2.1 in (55 mm) · cells 6 mm
Currently only in 1200 Sudoku, Super Easy to Easy.
- The most Sudokus for the money
- Easy Sudokus need no pencil marks
- Small print, no room for pencil marks, so only up to Easy
6 per page
Book 8.5 × 11 in (21.6 × 27.9 cm)
Grid 2.9 in (74 mm) · cells 8 mm
In the 650+ Sudoku books, and in 1200 Sudoku from Easy to Hard.
- A balance of room and price
- Room for a few pencil marks
- All difficulty ranges
- Harder puzzles need 3–4 pencil marks in a cell: that takes small, neat handwriting
2 per page
Book 6 × 9 in (15.2 × 22.9 cm)
Grid 3.5 in (90 mm) · cells 10 mm
In the 270 Sudoku books: large grids on a smaller page.
- Easy on the eyes
- Room for big handwriting
- A small book, easy to hold
- All difficulty ranges
- 270 Sudoku: the highest price per puzzle
Grid = the outer frame of one Sudoku. The solution grids at the back are printed smaller: you only read them.
See the sizes in real life
Feel the sizes on paper
Grid sizes can be written down in inches and millimeters, but you only feel them on paper, with a pen in your hand. Our free sample prints every grid size at its real size, with Sudoku puzzles from Super Easy to Hard. Print it at 100 %, solve a few, and you will know which size suits you.
Get the free sample