[Editor’s Note: I have not given up on The Shapeshifters’ Library. I am just trying a new structure to my blog posts]
Tic Tac Tome by Willy Yonkers is a book that purports to be able to beat you at tic-tac-toe. This 1,400-page book is set up like a wordless “choose-your-own-adventure” book, showing you your available moves, and presenting a page number for you to turn to in order to take that move, and to see the book’s move in response.
Much like real games of tic-tac-toe, most of these games end in draws. Most of the remainder end in book wins. Only one ends in a player win. Oddly enough, my first run through the book resulted in my winning.
Upon further examination, I determined that the win was entirely due to the book making a stupid mistake, possibly to allow for the player to have at least one possible win.
While the novelty of the book is quite quaint, the replayability is inversely dependent on your relative understanding of tic-tac-toe strategies. Ultimately, if you get this books, you will probably not get much use out of it after a few days. At that point, you’ll either give it to a friend, keep it on a coffee table, or put it in your library of quaint puzzle books and curiosities.
If you’re this latter person, you’ll probably actually get a kick out of this book, and it’ll be worth your purchase. If you’re not, you’re better off finding puzzle-guy/gal and borrowing it.
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