Tired of your same old daily routine? Ever feel like your brain needs a jump-start? Prevent your mind from turning to mush with these books that feature plenty of fun and stimulating puzzles, games, and other thinking-person's pastimes for both kids and adults.

1. 1000 PlayThinks: Puzzles, Paradoxes, Illusions & Games by Ivan Moscovich

This massive book of brainteasers and puzzles is just the thing when your intellect needs a workout--or when the kids are overdoing it with TV and computer games. The spiral-bound volume offers hundreds of puzzles in many categories, including numbers, perception, shapes, geometry, patterns, and more. Make things tougher by timing yourself; the answers are in the back.

2. The New York Times Sunday Crossword Puzzles, Vol. 27 edited by Will Shortz

The New York Times Sunday puzzle is the ruling monarch of crosswords, and for its true fans once a week is hardly enough. This collection of 50 crosswords, edited by the puzzle master himself, Will Shortz, offers the same wit, creativity, and unbridled challenge that Times Sunday puzzle mavens have come to expect.

3. Mad Mad Mad Mad Mad Libs by Roger Price and Leonard Stern

After 40 years-plus, Mad Libs is still a favorite game of word-loving kids and adults alike. This all-new collection features an anatomy lesson, a fan letter to your favorite superstar, an Internet chat room, and more.

 

4. Number Games by Ivan Moscovich

Part of the popular Mind Games series, this volume features conceptual puzzles and activities for kids aged eight and up who enjoy challenges and discovering new ways of looking at problems. Dozens of full-color puzzles and games focus on geometry, symmetry, fractal points, and other concepts. This is a fun, friendly way to encourage math aptitude or help overcome math phobia.

5. Elvis Lives! and Other Anagrams by Jon Agee

With deft wit and whimsy, author Agee takes words and phrases, rearranges them, and combines them into uncannily related variations--with delightful results. Funny pen-and-ink illustrations enhance the hilarity of the wordplay. You may never look at words in the same way.

6. Games Magazine Presents Paint by Numbers: The Unique Geometric Logic Puzzles for Ages 14 to Adult Edited by Games Magazine and Puzzler Magazine

A new and different type of puzzle, Paint by Numbers encourages logical reasoning, critical thinking, and organization with its fill-in-the-grid concept. Complete the puzzle correctly, and you've made a picture. More than a hundred puzzles range from easy to quite challenging, and offer hours of fun for puzzle fans.

7. The Quizzing: Everything You Always Wanted to Know, but Didn't Know Where to Look: The Ultimate Trivia Book by Ranjit Thomas

Trivia buffs and fact freaks will enjoy poring over hundreds of questions and answers on a wide variety of topics--art, business, discoveries, films, literature, math, music, mythology, sports, war, and lots of others. Whether you're honing your trivia skills for a game-show stint or just enjoy learning new stuff, this book fills the bill.

8. How Smart Are You?: The Big Book of IQ Tests by Norman Sullivan and Philip J. Carter

This spiral-bound volume features 24 entertaining, self-scoring tests designed to help users find out where they rank on the IQ scale. The tests are categorized in three skill levels, and include word problems, logic questions, and visual puzzles that challenge your mind and teach you how to use your IQ to your advantage.

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