Sounds Good

Feeling backwards? Want to know everything?
Some “resolution reading” for the new year could include books on improving your thought process, or at least your crossword puzzle skills. Here’s some of what I’ve been reading:

“BackWords: A Backwards Word List for Gamers”
By CHerie K. Miller
I love hearing puzzle master Will Shortz on NPR every Sunday morning and I love a good game of Scrabble. My family loves the Scrabble dictionary for tight spots and Cherie K. Miller has an equally handy new book for big points. It reveals words like xis, zill to crossword and other puzzlers, and is fun for people who just love learning new words. You look up the final letter in the word you may seek.
Skep is a round farm basket of wicker or wood; titi is a kind of monkey or shrub; and vexil relates to a Roman military flag. This book is just a word list. You get to look up the definitions and learn more on your own. Warning: The list of words ending in Q is as short as you’d imagine, but there are plenty that end in X.

“How to Be Right About Everything”
Nash Mourad
I still have a few more pages to go, so I’ll let you know when I know it all. What’s funny, is this is Volume I. What you believe comes true for you, the author writes. We can choose abundance over scarcity. Boredom, he supports, is “thinking you know everything.” Several people I know may find this a challenge, but the author suggests that by admitting you don’t know everything, the simple awareness will shift your mind.

‘The Affordability Factor”
By Nathaniel J. Williams
“We can only afford what we are willing to sacrifice,” Nathaniel J. Williams writes in his new release that’s sort of a quick-read workbook on change and living better. “The Affordability Factor” focuses on releasing oneself from a “challenging life event.” Who doesn’t have one of those going on? We have to own our decisions, he writes, then we reframe our events. This “Affordibility” is about more than money.
ddoiron@panews.com