# Yet another question about an old book

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-question-about-an-old-book/806425>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [January 11, 2018, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-question-about-an-old-book/806425 "2018-01-11T21:24:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![That\_Don\_Guy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/that_don_guy/32/538_2.png) [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)\
**Post date:** [January 11, 2018, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-question-about-an-old-book/806425/1 "2018-01-11T21:24:45Z")

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About 20 years ago, Random House released two “contest books,” each of which was part of a $10,000 contest. One was a trivia contest, edited by Henry Hook, and had a green cover; I know this exists, as I have a copy of it.

However, it’s the other one I am asking about. It is called “Random House $10,000 Crossword Challenge.” [Here is an Amazon link to it.](https://www.amazon.com/Random-House-Crossword-Challenge-Crosswords/dp/0812927729) However, nobody seems to have a copy of it, and I am not convinced that it was ever actually released.

Does anybody there have a copy of it, and if you do, how did the contest work? And please, don’t just quote that the book description says (“each of the first 49 crossword puzzle reveals two letters of a hidden message which relates to the solution of the last crossword”).

Speaking of the trivia book, in case you didn’t already know, there’s a secret involving the answers:

All of the answers end with the letters A-G. There is a reason for this; it involves the “will appear before you” clue in the instructions.

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**Author:** ![Wallet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e99b99/32.png) [@Wallet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallet)\
**Post date:** [January 12, 2018, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-question-about-an-old-book/806425/2 "2018-01-12T05:42:32Z")

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Sorry, don’t be excited, I didn’t find it.  
I checked [worldcat.org](http://worldcat.org), which searches libraries world wide - no luck.  
I also looked at used book websites, such as [abebooks.com](http://abebooks.com). This site had your trivia book for sale, but strangely entitles it _Random House $10,000 Trivia Challenge (RH Crosswords)_. Not sure why they’re saying it’s also a crossword puzzle book.

[Bookfinder.com](http://Bookfinder.com) has it listed ([https://www.bookfinder.com/search/?author=&title=&lang=en&isbn=978-0812927726&new\_used=\*&destination=us&currency=USD&mode=basic&st=sr&ac=qr](https://www.bookfinder.com/search/?author=&title=&lang=en&isbn=978-0812927726&new_used=*&destination=us&currency=USD&mode=basic&st=sr&ac=qr)), but it’s out of stock - just like Amazon.

The best I could find was [https://www.directtextbook.com/isbn/9780812927726](https://www.directtextbook.com/isbn/9780812927726)  
You can put in your email and they’ll notify you if the book ever turns up.