I did too and sent away for paper backs on puzzles and codes and stuff like that.
I think we've lost our attention span in our elder years because I can't even spend more than 5 minutes on a crossword puzzle before I say screw it.......LOL!
Around 1970, I met and almost got married to a really cute girl. I still think she was the best person I ever dated even nicer than my wife.
In early Sept. I drove to Texas to be with her for a weekend. Her Father was a brilliant chemist, one who had patents for things which one would recognize immediately. He was also a devoted Christian.
That Saturday when I got up, he was sitting at a table doing brain teasers. He invited me to do some with him. I was really hot that day and figured out every one of them.
The next day his Daughter told me that he had pointed up to the bedroom where I was asleep and told her. “That is the best one yet”. I suspect my performance on the brain teasers had made a good impression.