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The Puzzling Puzzles: Bothersome Games Which Will Bother Some People is a puzzle book based on the series A Series of Unfortunate Events. Many of the puzzles are unsolvable or trick questions; for example, one refers to a black and white picture of a restaurant and asks about the color of the maître d's socks. The last page reveals that the book is a training manual for V.F.D.

The book was first published October 26, 2004 and is 96 pages long. The second U.S. edition was published in February 21, 2006 with a new cover (artwork from The Bad Beginning: Special Edition), sixteen new puzzles, and an additional introduction by R. The second U.K. edition was released February 2007 with the new cover but does not contain the new puzzles and introduction.

Dear Reader[]

Dear Puzzle Enthusiast,

I have spent many unhappy years doing many unhappy things, and I do not recommend it. My work researching Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire and their endless troubles with Count Olaf leaves me moaning, weeping, and pulling out my hair almost every night, including weekends.

But there is no reason for you to spend your life the same way. Instead, you might choose to spend your youth distracted by mildly entertaining activities. Like school, prison, or an enormous cake with a spyglass baked into it, this collection of puzzles and games will help keep you "out of trouble," a phrase which here means "far away from distressing books and movies." In this short digest alone, I have collected such instructive diversions as a do-it-yourself blindfold, a coded message, a crossword puzzle, and a monkey fist—enough to fill up several years of your life.

I am bound to continue my research into the tragic lives of the Baudelaire orphans, but you have an opportunity to do cheerier things with your time. Take it.

With all due respect,

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New Dear Reader[]

Dear Puzzled Person,

Nothing is more enjoyable than a book filled with pleasant diversions like easy crossword puzzles, silly mazes, and funny word games. Sadly, this is no such book.

Instead, you hold in your hands a manual that has been called "distressing," "frustrating," "very important to the survival of a secret organization," and "The Puzzling Puzzles." In fact, undertaking this training is like training an undertaker, because it is likely to cause bad dreams, horrid smells, and years of drudgery, most likely indoors. Within these puzzling pages, you will find such paginated puzzles as a map of Count Olaf's hiding place, a complicated knot, a coded message, and math.

I have dedicated my life to unraveling the puzzles that surround the doomed Baudelaire orphans. Why should you?

With all due respect,

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