Solution for The Book Shelf

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The order and color of the books is:

Old Yeller

Robinson Crusoe

Kidnapped

Gulliver's Travels

Savage Sam

Tom Sawyer

To solve it I created the tables shown below. In table #1 I gave every "cell" a number (based on it's row and column number). The cells with the lime colored background are those cells which I'll end-up proving are "true". "True" means the row and column conditions are correct.

Table #1
		Left	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	Right		Tom S	Old Y	Kid	Rob C	Gull T	Sam S
Red		1,1	1,2	1,3	1,4	1,5	1,6		1,7	1,8	1,9	1,10	1,11	1,12
Black		2,1	2,2	2,3	2,4	2,5	2,6		2,7	2,8	2,9	2,10	2,11	2,12
Blue		3,1	3,2	3,3	3,4	3,5	3,6		3,7	3,8	3,9	3,10	3,11	3,12
Brown		4,1	4,2	4,3	4,4	4,5	4,6		4,7	4,8	4,9	4,10	4,11	4,12
Tom S		5,1	5,2	5,3	5,4	5,5	5,6
Old Y		6,1	6,2	6,3	6,4	6,5	6,6
Kid		7,1	7,2	7,3	7,4	7,5	7,6
Rob C		8,1	8,2	8,3	8,4	8,5	8,6
Gull T		9,1	9,2	9,3	9,4	9,5	9,6
Sam S		10,1	10,2	10,3	10,4	10,5	10,6

In table #2 I used the clues to determine, or elminate, a color or location. For example clue # 4 shows that the cell at row 1, "Red", and column 1 "Left" is true. This is indicated by a fuchsia (the color code for clue #4) colored "O". A cell that is "false" will have a colored X to indicate which clue proved it was wrong.

• Decisions based on clue #2 are in black.
• Decisions based on clue #3 are in olive.
• Decisions based on clue #4 are in fuchsia.
• Decisions based on clue #5 are in teal.

Table #2
		Left	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	Right		Tom S	Old Y	Kid	Rob C	Gull T	Sam S
Red		O	X	X	X	X	X		X	O	X	X	X	X
Black		X	X	O	X	X	X		X	X	O	X	X	X
Blue		X	O	X	X	X	X		X	X	X	O	X	X
Brown		X	X	X	O	O	O		O	X	X	X	O	O
Tom S		X	X	X	X	X	O
Old Y		O	X	X	X	X	X
Kid		X	X	O	X	X	X
Rob C		X	O	X	X	X	X
Gull T		X	X	X	O	X	X
Sam S		X	X	X	X	O	X

• Clue #2:
  • Tells us that Kidnapped is the 3rd book from the left
    • so cell [7,3] is true and cells [5,3], [6,3], [8,3], [9,3], [10,3], [7,1], [7,2], [7,4], [7,5] and [7,6] are false.
  • Tells us that neither Old Yeller nor Kidnapped is blue
    • so cells [3,8] and [3,9] are false.
  • Tells us that neither Old Yeller nor Kidnapped is brown
    • so cells [4,8] and [4,9] are false.
  • Tells us that the last 3 books on the right side are brown
    • so cells [4,4], [4,5] and [4,6] are true, while cells [1,4], [1,5], [1,6], [2,4], [2,5], [2,6], [3,4], [3,5], [3,6], [4,1], [4,2] and [4,3] are false.
  • Tells us that the blue book is one of the first two on the left
    • so cell is [3,3] false.
• Clue #3:
  • Tells us that Savage Sam is the middle brown book
    • so cells [10,5] and [4,12] are true and cells [5,5], [6,5], [8,5], [9,5], [10,1], [10,2], [10,4], [10,6], [1,12], [2,12] and [3,12] are false.
  • Tells us that Tom Sawyer is the far right book, and that it's brown
    • so cells [5,6] and [4,7] are true and cells [6,6], [8,6], [9,6], [5,1], [5,2], [5,4], [1,7], [2,7] and [3,7] are false.
• Clue #4:
  • Tells us that the book on the far left is red
    • so cell [1,1] is true and cells [1,2], [1,3], [2,1] and [3,1] are false.
    • If you now review cells you'll see [1,3], [3,3] and [4,3] are all false, so [2,3] must be true and therefore [2,2] must be false.
    • If you review the cells again you'll see that [1,2], [2,2] and [4,2] are false, so [3,2] must be true.
    • Now if [2,3] is true (i.e. the black book is in the 3rd spot) and if [7,3] is true (i.e. Kidnapped is in the 3rd spot) then Kidnapped must be black
      • so [2,9] is true and [1,9], [2,8], [2,10] and [2,11] are false.
      • And again if you review the cells you'll see [2,8], [3,8] and [4,8] are false, so [1,8] must be true, and therefore [1,10] and [1,11] are false.
• Clue #5:
  • Tells us that Gulliver's Travel is not the book on the far left (which is red), nor the book next to it (which is blue), so it must be the 4th book (which is brown)
    • so [4,11] is true which makes [3,11] false
    • and cells [9,1] and [9,2] are false and cell [9,4] is true
    • and if [9,4] is true, [6,4] and [8,4] are false.
    • If you review the cells you'll see that [3,7], [3,8], [3,9], [3,11] and [3,12] are false, so [3,10] must be true, which makes [4,10] false.
    • Now knowing that Robinson Crusoe is blue (cell [3,10] true) and knowing that the blue book is 2nd from the left (cell [3,2] true), Robinson Crusoe must be 2nd from the left
      • so cell [8,2] is true, which makes cells [6,2] and [8,1] false
      • and if you review the cells you'll see the only valid condition is for cell [6,1] to be true.