I Hate Sudoku

Two years ago, I had never heard of Sudoku. Now, Sudoku stares me in the face every time I turn around.

My introduction to Sudoku came when my grandson brought a Sudoku puzzle to me one evening and explained that it was part of his math assignment. It looked more like a game to me, and, since I had always enjoyed crossword puzzles, I made myself a copy of his puzzle and told him I would race him to see who could finish first.

Of course you know that I was hopelessly lost in a few minutes. Every line I filled in was in total conflict with the intersecting line, and even when most of my little 3 x 3 squares contained all 9 numbers, the others did not. What frustration. I promised myself I would never go near a Sudoki again.

You probably also know that I didn't keep that promise. Sudoki was everywhere. I heard people speak of a situation being like a Sudoki. (I assumed they meant that they were hopelessly trapped with nowhere to go.)

Sit-coms on TV began to show people sitting around working Sudoku instead of crossword puzzles. A local school announced that a Sudoku club would be started at the beginning of the next semester. If I rode a bus, or walked down a street, I encountered people with Sudoku puzzles under their arms. Our daily newspaper started publishing a Sudoku puzzle just above the crossword puzzle I had rushed to work every week-day morning. And, just when I thought I had seen everything, I ran into a young man at the mall who had a T-shirt emblazoned with a Sudoku on the front and the answer on the back.

Since I have always prided myself on being able to adapt well, I decided that if I couldn't lick them, I would join them. After all, I was a reasonably intelligent college graduate. If my 6th grade grandson could do it, so could I.

I ambled over the the magazine section of our local Safeway store the next time I went grocery shopping and spent a few minutes perusing the rather large number of Sudoku books they had on the shelf. Making sure no one was watching, I chose one of the more simple looking ones that had a large portion of the puzzles that were marked "easy." I would work my way up slowly.

Well, guess what? Two months later, I have only managed to complete 4 of the puzzles, and success on those 4 only came after countless erasing and starting over.

Now I am wondering what is so addictive about them. I work on one for a few minutes and then, a few minutes later, find myself drawn back for another session. I can't seem to give up no matter how long it takes me to do one right.

What I am wondering is, do other people know some secret about the Sudoku that I don't know? Is there a trick to getting it right the first time around, or is my brain just wired wrong for this kind of operation? If so, how do I break the "addiction" that seems to draw me back time after time to waste away another hour or more of my life on something that offers such a small reward?

Are there any recovering Sudoku addicts out there who can give me some advice? I could really use all the help I can get.