#Puzzles

2 items

Bookshop shelves stacked with sudoku puzzle books
Trends 2004–2007 peak

The Sudoku Craze

Remember when sudoku grids were suddenly everywhere — newspapers, airport bookstores, that one waiting room where time moved differently? The mid-2000s delivered the last great pencil-and-paper puzzle obsession, and it trained a generation of commuters to genuinely fear the word "fiendish."

Video thumbnail — Where's Waldo Theme Song
Books 1987–1995 peak

Where's Waldo?

Find the man in the red-striped shirt hiding in impossibly crowded scenes — a simple concept that became a full-blown craze when American kids discovered Where's Waldo? in the early 1990s. It swept schools, Halloween parties, and bookstore displays.