It took me MONTHS to read this, even though I loved it so much. I've just been busy. But I LOVED it.

And then I got to the end.

I was really disappointed in the end. Here was this amazing testament to the author's journey into the Scrabble world, complete with a heart-wrenching tale of Scrabble's humble start. Here were awesomely painted pictures of the various characters who make up the world of competitive Scrabble. Here were honest rants and raves and self-deprication based on a four digit number.

And then it was over. Abruptly. And I put it down and walked away. Angrily. This is the first book in a long time to get me super excited and then really not come through.

This was a ton more fun than I thought it would be! The heights reached in the Scrabble journey were really exciting.

Also if you read and enjoyed this but are like me and are not an enjoyer of PLAYING Scrabble, they do live stream matches! My coworker is one of the top rated competitive women Scrabble players in my province, and watching her play is actually really tense and fun! If you liked the book, the matches are SUPER fun!

Just picked this up at a used bookstore in New Haven. Looking forward to prying it out of my husband's hands!

Fairly interesting in that it got me to look at the game in a new way. I felt that it could have been about 100 pages shorter, though. It dragged on through the middle, and there was a lot of unclear or overly-verbose writing throughout. The occasional play-by-play really did a lot to quicken the pace, and was fun to read.

This book should have been an article.

The subtitle pretty much says it all. Over a period of about three years, Stefan Fatsis delved into the world of competitive Scrabble, with the added goal of seeing if he could improve his own game to the point of being able to compete in the top tournament divisions.

Tournament Scrabble is different from the average living room game in many of the same ways that tournament level chess differs from playing against your sister or father over the holidays. There are even professional Scrabble players. Not many, true, but they do exist. The best players are the ones who can memorize lists of ALL the legal two, three, four, and five letter words, sometimes longer. They can calculate the odds of drawing any given tile and are well-versed in the strategy of which letters are safer to extend temptingly out into the column with the Triple Word Score spaces …

Fatsis alternates the reports of his own progress with profiles of some of the top players of the game, as well as its history. My favorite bit of trivia was probably his account of his regular sessions with a Scrabble club in New York City. One of the members’ names was familiar to me due to my sharing a college apartment with some diehard fans of the Rocky Horror Picture Show: president of the national RHPS fan club, Sal Piro.

The book was fascinating and informative. In the end, I can find no better summary than the quote from Will Shortz on the back cover: “It’s a pleasure to experience vicariously a level of play that I’ll never achieve! “ Recommended!

A fascinating glimpse into the quirky lives of competitive Scrabble players. Recommended for fans of the game.

The underworld of competitive Scrabble. I found the lives of word freaks very interesting. The book is a bit tedious at times, but worth the read.

I love Scrabble! I’ve loved it since the days I’d play the game with my grandmother during our summer beach trips or at home during the holidays. I stumbled across this book at a local used book store & was stunned that I’d never heard of competitive Scrabble! I enjoyed learning the history and following the author on his journey to the highest levels of competitive play. He captured the real life characters (no names were changed) and the minds that are drawn to this game. I gave it 4/5 stars because it did take me awhile to finish (some parts read slower than others). Overall if you love the game & want to learn more about the history and current state of the game - you’ll enjoy this book!

I'm glad I waited until I understood more able competitive Scrabble before reading this. I just know that I won't aspire to be an expert player because I don't have the kind of drive to learn words that the people in the book have.

A fascinating look at the world of competitive Scrabble, but I was really put off by the author's sexism. Women are only mentioned as novices, enthusiasts (meaning hobbyists), or dismissed by age as blue-hairs or middle-aged.

I’d seen the documentary and had been wanting to read Word Freak for some time, so I was pleased when it finally turned up under the Christmas tree. Word Freak took me a long time to finish, because I? kept getting distracted by wanting to play Scrabble. Fatsis brings the game to alive in the usual journalistic fashion of telling the stories of the players—the quirky obsessives who get hooked on the gamer. He recount tons of interesting and entertaining Scrabble lore—rules, tricks, and history. And Fatsis builds drama and respect for the players by focusing on the competition. It’s sports writing for word geeks.