What Is The Name Of This Book?: The Riddle Of Dracula And Other Logical Puzzles by Raymond M. Smullyan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
In this popular puzzle, a man has committed a crime punishable by death. He is to make a statement. If the statement is true, he is to be drowned; if the statement is false, he is to be hanged. What statement should he make to confound his executioner?
I got this book after reading The Tao Is Silent and deciding that Mr. Raymond Smullyan must be one of my favourite people out there. A logician, a magician, a pianist, a Taoist and a mathematician? (it rhymes!)
What Is The Name Of This Book? (link leads to full text online, in case you’re curious—CTRL+F “Was I Fooled” to get a small taste) is a small journey through all kinds of logic puzzles, paradoxes, stories etc, most of them in the style of knights & knaves, that is puzzles in which the solver has to figure out from a series of statements which can be either always true or always false, depending on if they are made by a knight or a knave, who the knight and/or knave is.
Most puzzles in the book were based on similar themes and got a bit repetitive after a while, but really, how creative can you get with just logic, 0s and 1s that is? At this point it has to be said that lately I’ve been more interested in “irrational” puzzles, ones that have to be solved by acuteness of observation or thinking outside the box rather than clear-cut logic, i.e. those that try to trick you into blindly and thoughtlessly following logic, when using logic alone for solving the puzzle ends up being a hindrance, not a tool. I’m talking about games such as the ones Alberto from Spain taught me and I now play with groups of people whenever I get the chance.
Still, there’s plenty in What Is The Name of This Book? to make one think, and as a collection of quips, stories, anecdotes as well as logic puzzles, it does have a certain value. I would say that it’d make a great companion to Logicomix.
I’m making it my gift to dad this New Year’s; let’s see if he’s going to like it at all, him being more of a rational thinker than me and all. Maybe he can use these stories in his English classes in some way as well.
Solution to puzzle at top of review: (view spoiler)