Hanjie in the UK?

Hi,

I'm new to this forum. I've become hooked on Hanjie puzzles (also love Sudoku) via the Nintendo DS Picross games. After playing these games non-stop, I went searching on the internet and also found that they go under the name Hanjie (nonograms, griddlers etc) and discovered the puzzle books.

I tried to find a UK Hanjie forum and this is where I ended up. So... not UK I think, but...

I've seen the Sudoku Xtra magazines on here and I'm very interested in them. But they seem to become quite expensive to have sent to the UK. (I'd really prefer a paper copy than to print them). Anyone in the UK found these to a good price inc P&P please...?

Also, hoping that there are some UK Hanjie fans out there, I just wanted to take the opportunity to ask about the puzzler books in WH Smith: Hanjie, Super Hanjie and Beyond Sudoku. Opinions? I guess I'm pretty much a beginner so I don't want to buy something that is just way to hard. Is the difficulty level different between Hanjie and Super Hanjie? Which one would you recommend? One easier/harder than the other? Better for some other reason...?

Also any good Hanjie books? Not mega hard please as I want to actually do then rather than give up

Finally, is there any clever solution from Hanjie fans on how not to get your whole hand and little finger covered in grey from picking up the pencil on the grids while solving? LOL!

Thanks in advance for any suggestions and advice

Hi Anso,

Actually this site is based in the UK - it's just that we don't have the really great self-publishing system that Amazon.com offer in the US, so Lulu.com is the best alternative (at the low volume that Sudoku Xtra, being such a 'specialist' title, sells). I know the postage is significant, but Sudoku Xtra would need to sell 1000s of copies for it to be feasible for me to print it elsewhere and ship it direct at lower cost - most people do download and print, although others do order multiple issues at once from Lulu so as to decrease the relative postage costs.

Also it's worth noting that if you count the puzzles in Beyond Sudoku and look at the cost of Sudoku Xtra from Lulu with postage, it actually works out CHEAPER per puzzle! So it's not bad value.

Anyway, for Hanjie you should definitely check out my PuzzleMix site at www.puzzlemix.com - there is a new top-quality Hanjie every week in the members' section, and a free one every month, plus there's a "virtual book" of 100 Hanjie you can add immediately to your account.

My opinion on the Hanjie in Hanjie, Super Hanjie and Beyond Sudoku at WH Smith is that they are stupidly hard - they are all supplied by Conceptis to Puzzler, and their solvers require you to brute force cross-reference entries to solve most puzzles. (In fact they rate puzzles easy/hard, but the majority are hard). This allows them the more intricate designs they are well-known for, but means you need either insane patience or to simply guess to get anywhere on the majority of their content. I don't enjoy them at all, at any rate. That's just my opinion of course, but they're not for me. I'm pretty certain Super Hanjie is just larger puzzles, otherwise the same.

I've had two books of Hanjie published by Michael O'Mara, which are still on Amazon.co.uk - they were early puzzles so there are a couple of things in some puzzles that "purists" don't like: full-width/height black areas; some empty rows/columns occasionally; and one or two inverted puzzles, where you mainly place black. But there are so many puzzles in the book that even if that bothered you you could easily skip them. The two books are "The Book of Hanjie" (150 puzzles) and "The Kids' Book of Hanjie" (101 puzzles, same difficulty but don't get quite as big). I also have 50 Hanjie in "The Book of Japanese Puzzles", which has Sudoku and Kakuro too - that was my second book I ever wrote, and is now out of print but available from resellers. My "The Essential Book of Hanjie" is just the first book I listed here as printed in the US, but annoyingly sold on Amazon.co.uk too - so it is the same content.

Anyway, all of these books use the so-called (by Conceptis) "easy" logic, although in fact they can be difficult enough as it is. In each book they're sorted by increasing size, and within each size they get slowly harder too. I think they'd suit you, based on what you say.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/17/2010 01:46PM by gareth.

Thank you very much for your quick reply.

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gareth
Actually this site is based in the UK

Ooops - LOL! Not very well researched by me it seems.

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gareth
I know the postage is significant, but Sudoku Xtra would need to sell 1000s of copies for it to be feasible for me to print it elsewhere and ship it direct at lower cost - most people do download and print, although others do order multiple issues at once from Lulu so as to decrease the relative postage costs.

I totally understand. I'm going to look into ordering from Lulu again and have a think about the cost. I guess I'm also worrying about customs charges... but I guess all 4 issues might come in a bit less than the customs limit anyway.

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gareth
Anyway, for Hanjie you should definitely check out my PuzzleMix site at www.puzzlemix.com - there is a new top-quality Hanjie every week in the members' section, and a free one every month, plus there's a "virtual book" of 100 Hanjie you can add immediately to your account.

Thanks for the link I have opened it in another window and will check it out in a little minute. Must look for that virtual book download too - that sounds great

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gareth
My opinion on the Hanjie in Hanjie, Super Hanjie and Beyond Sudoku at WH Smith is that they are stupidly hard

That is really interesting/useful to read and kinda what I was fearing So if I'm after something Hanjie (or at least with a decent amount of Hanjie puzzles) is there any other publication that comes out monthly, or a few times a year, that you can recommend instead please? One that is not "stupidly hard" please

I'm of course already going to check out Sudoku Xtra at Lulu again too. Can I ask approx how many Hanjie puzzles one of these issues contains please?

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gareth
I've had two books of Hanjie published by Michael O'Mara, which are still on Amazon.co.uk - they were early puzzles so there are a couple of things in some puzzles that "purists" don't like: full-width/height black areas; some empty rows/columns occasionally; and one or two inverted puzzles, where you mainly place black. But there are so many puzzles in the book that even if that bothered you you could easily skip them. The two books are "The Book of Hanjie" (150 puzzles) and "The Kids' Book of Hanjie" (101 puzzles, same difficulty but don't get quite as big). I also have 50 Hanjie in "The Book of Japanese Puzzles", which has Sudoku and Kakuro too - that was my second book I ever wrote, and is now out of print but available from resellers. My "The Essential Book of Hanjie" is just the first book I listed here as printed in the US, but annoyingly sold on Amazon.co.uk too - so it is the same content.

That's so funny. I have only made the name connection to the book that I ordered on Amazon and that arrived an hour ago I got "The Essential Book of Hanjie" so it seems that I have made a good choice there And thanks for the tip about it being another book with a different cover, so I don't buy both. Also further to your recommendation above I have just this minute placed an order for "The Book Of Japansese Puzzles" - thanks I've never tried Kakuro but always been interested in giving it a go, so this is great.

Thanks again for all your time already - your post was very helpful

Glad to be of help! Just so you know, Lulu have printers around the world so if you order in the UK then for certain it will be printed and shipped from within the UK - that's why I use them for Sudoku Xtra. So definitely no customs charges. It's a pretty good service really (the print quality is better than almost every shop-bought book or magazine), and if they just had the option to use cheaper postage (jiffy bags would do - I've had Sudoku Xtra delivered in a one inch deep box with padding for example, although very thick cardboard wrapping is the most common) then they'd be even better.

By the way, if you give Lulu your email address they occasionally do have offers such as "25% off everything" and similar.

I should say that I wouldn't recommend Sudoku Xtra just for Hanjie - there is one 30x30 and two 15x15, so not worth buying if that's your only reason. Here's a full list of what's in the current issue.

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gareth
Glad to be of help! Just so you know, Lulu have printers around the world so if you order in the UK then for certain it will be printed and shipped from within the UK - that's why I use them for Sudoku Xtra. So definitely no customs charges. It's a pretty good service really (the print quality is better than almost every shop-bought book or magazine), and if they just had the option to use cheaper postage (jiffy bags would do - I've had Sudoku Xtra delivered in a one inch deep box with padding for example, although very thick cardboard wrapping is the most common) then they'd be even better.

By the way, if you give Lulu your email address they occasionally do have offers such as "25% off everything" and similar.

I should say that I wouldn't recommend Sudoku Xtra just for Hanjie - there is one 30x30 and two 15x15, so not worth buying if that's your only reason. Here's a full list of what's in the current issue.

Thanks for your reply. I actually went and ordered the Sudoku Xtra issue 1,2 3, and 4 from Lulu yesterday before I saw this message Would have loved it to be more Hanjie in each issue, but at the same time I'm excited to try all the other puzzles so I'm really looking forward to it.

Oh, great, thanks for letting me know that Lulu ships from within UK. That is good to know. I was also tempted to get the two "book" issues from them, but I thought they can wait until next time

Can I ask when issue 5 is out please? Or even very approx. Are they monthly...?

Thanks again for your help!

Wow, thanks for that! I really hope you enjoy them (I'm sure you will). Sudoku Xtra is monthly, with each issue due out around the 25th of the month. The download version appears first, with the Lulu copy following within the next 24 hours and then the Amazon version can take up to a week more to appear (they take a while to update their database).

The next issue will be dated April 2010, due out around the 25th March.

Hi Anso

Just thought I'd introduce myself as another Hanjie addict in the UK.

I used to subscribe to both Hanjie and Super Hanjie but no longer get them. The largest puzzles in Hanjie were 30x30, whereas Super Hanjie used to start at sizes 30x35 with the largest being 50x60, and also contained a couple of colour puzzles. Super Hanjie was definitely harder than Hanjie and I tend to agree with Gareth's opinion above. You will certainly need patience! You have a lot of good material now from Gareth to keep you going for a long time, but if you ever wanted to try a copy of Hanjie or Super Hanjie in the future I'd be happy to send you a back issue. I probably have some clean ones buried amongst my pile of puzzle magazines. Nowadays I get Hanjie magazines imported from Japan, although they go by a variety of different names - Logic Paradise, Oekaki King, Illustrologic, Oekaki Mate to name a few. Some of these magazines have small or gentle puzzles, whereas other magzines can be quite fiendish. The two I import are Logic Paradise and Illustrologic Special, the Special being a harder version of Illustrologic. The majority of the puzzles in these two magazines are 50x60 in size with large fold-outs of sizes 90x80 and 180x70. Yes, I have a lot of patience! These magazines cost an arm and a leg to import from Japan, but if you ever go on holiday there then check them out!

Regarding your grey hands, join the club! After 7x years of Hanjie puzzling I haven't found a long term solution. I've tried gloves, but who wants to wear gloves indoors in the summer? Useful for the winter months, though. You could try using a sheet of paper so your hand rests on that, but you'll be constantly moving it around and clipping it into place over the puzzle!

Without blowing my own trumpet, a few years ago I wrote a Hanjie tutorial which lives on the Conceptis site as a free download. It's a step by step tutorial aimed at beginners, covering basic to intermediate strategies for both black and white and colour puzzles. If you think this can help you just send me a PM with your email address and I'd be happy to send you a copy.

Happy puzzling
Marilyn

Just wanted to say thanks for the help and to let you know that the service from Lulu was much quicker than they said So I was pleasantly surprised. I had my magazines already on Saturday.

The only thing is that I think that 2 of the issues are printed incorrectly which is a bit of a disappointment for me. I'm a bit of a perfectionist and wanted pretty factory printed copies (the reason I decided to not print myself). Let me explain... I understand the reason for the extra pages in the back. But issue 2 and 4 also have extra printed pages in the front. You open the cover and they both start with pages 63-68, THEN the puzzle pages come and and then the empty pages in the back (including the same page 63-68 that are at the start). I know it's a minor thing in one way, but since I paid extra (ie more than for downloads) you kinda want it to be correct. Any idea where I stand on this please?

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Marilyn
I used to subscribe to both Hanjie and Super Hanjie but no longer get them. The largest puzzles in Hanjie were 30x30, whereas Super Hanjie used to start at sizes 30x35 with the largest being 50x60, and also contained a couple of colour puzzles. Super Hanjie was definitely harder than Hanjie and I tend to agree with Gareth's opinion above. You will certainly need patience! You have a lot of good material now from Gareth to keep you going for a long time, but if you ever wanted to try a copy of Hanjie or Super Hanjie in the future I'd be happy to send you a back issue. I probably have some clean ones buried amongst my pile of puzzle magazines. Nowadays I get Hanjie magazines imported from Japan, although they go by a variety of different names - Logic Paradise, Oekaki King, Illustrologic, Oekaki Mate to name a few. Some of these magazines have small or gentle puzzles, whereas other magzines can be quite fiendish. The two I import are Logic Paradise and Illustrologic Special, the Special being a harder version of Illustrologic. The majority of the puzzles in these two magazines are 50x60 in size with large fold-outs of sizes 90x80 and 180x70. Yes, I have a lot of patience! These magazines cost an arm and a leg to import from Japan, but if you ever go on holiday there then check them out!

Thanks for your sweet offer, but I have managed to buy some copies of Hanjie and Super Hanjie so I think I will be okay I really appreciate it though.

These magazines that you mentioned... can you only subscribe direct from Japan, or is there somewhere in the UK where you can just buy a single issue to try first? Like, are they ever on Ebay or something maybe.

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Marilyn
Without blowing my own trumpet, a few years ago I wrote a Hanjie tutorial which lives on the Conceptis site as a free download. It's a step by step tutorial aimed at beginners, covering basic to intermediate strategies for both black and white and colour puzzles. If you think this can help you just send me a PM with your email address and I'd be happy to send you a copy.

I would very much like to have a read of this so I will send you a PM shortly. Thanks for the offer

Shame about the printing errors, Anso - I wonder whether they would do a re-print if you were to contact them? I must admit, I am a bit extravagant and buy a pdf copy of the magazine, but also order a hard copy from Lulu because I like to have the proper factory printed copies too, and so far have had no problems with Lulu - each copy has arrived with just blank pages at the back. I hope you manage to get somewhere with them.

Anso,

That is appalling that you had some misprinted copies. Just to be clear, they absolutely should not be like that. I'm so sorry you had problems there, and I'm glad you mentioned it!

You should certainly complain to Lulu and ask for them to resend. I'm afraid I can't do this for you because I don't get any order tracking information from Lulu - it's a completely "closed box" from my point of view. When you complain I imagine they'll just resend them, so hopefully that will be that. If however you don't get any joy then please let me know (gareth@sudokuxtra.com) and I will contact them too and keep on to them until it is resolved.

Thank you Gareth. Well, I filled in the form on their website about printing defects. I instantly had an automated mail asking me to send photos to prove the problem. Which I did. I am yet to have a "real" reply from them. But I'll let you know how it goes. Hopefully they will get back to me today. It's a bit of a shame as I don't dare starting on my puzzle books until I know what will happen with this.

Well done, and if you ask me that's pretty cheeky to ask for proof! (Which is pointless, since you could presumably easily fake that "proof" anyway if you were really trying to get a second copy for free from them). I hope you get a good response now, at least.

At the moment there isn't a viable alternative to Lulu in the UK for the quantities Sudoku Xtra sells. Some of my books have shown up on Amazon.co.uk recently under Createspace's (Amazon.com's 100%-owned self-publishing company) new 'extended distribution programme', but most show as out of stock - although they do all have Marketplace listings at sometimes exorbitant prices. (These conversely all show 'in stock', which is absolutely not true - virtually all of these Marketplace companies automatically create listings and then only order the books when they get an order in turn!) Anyway, Sudoku Xtra itself hasn't turned up on the UK site - either because I describe it as a magazine, although technically it's in fact a book (and Amazon.co.uk forbids magazines, unlike Amazon.com!) or because the page count isn't high enough. I'm not sure which. The 'specials' of 16x16 and 25x25 have, however. And my 'Killer Sudoku' self-published book recently changed to 'In stock - 2 days to ship' which is interesting; it might be that in the next month or so that - with a delay - my stuff will in fact start to be available on Amazon.co.uk.

I spoke too soon! Sudoku Xtra magazines 2-4 have now shown up on Amazon.co.uk - but at £16.97 I don't think they'll be much in demand...!!!

Wow that is some mad prices for the magazines! LOL!

Update: Lulu got in touch with me yesterday and offered me either a refund for the faulty printed issues or a reprint. I asked them for the 2 faulty issues to please be reprinted. So hopefully they might turn up next week or so... they gave me no timeframe for this. But I'm really pleased that they got back to me relatively quickly. I'll let you know how it goes...

Yes - the Marketplace sellers use scripts to auto-generate the prices based on random variations on other prices for the item. However their pricing goes wrong for items they can't find on sale - one of my books (worth £5) was over £2500.00 from all five sellers a week ago until I complained to Amazon! The Marketplace system only works for items that are sold regularly - the prices on other items are insane.

Anyway, thanks so much for letting me know about Lulu - fingers-crossed that will be it now, then. I'm glad they didn't hassle you any more, and my apologies again for their bad service!

I just got my correctly printed issues, literally 5 mins ago And no, Lulu has not put me off ordering again at all. If anything, it's good to know that they have great service if you should ever have a problem.

Quick question: I just spotted the thread at the top about issue 5 being ready - how long after, approx, does it appear at Lulu's site please? (Not that I haven't got enough Sudoku Xtra magazines to get along with already or anything! LOL!)

Thanks again for all your help!

It actually appears instantly on Lulu once I upload it. However I need to reformat it first to fit the page size and create the colour cover, so sometimes I do it the next day. It's ready for order from Lulu within 24 hours of the download appearing, usually.

I'm very glad they delivered the fixed versions to you quickly and this time correctly! Thanks for letting me know.