Games are often seen as a microcosm of life. This occurred naturally with chess; it happened on purpose with Life (look up the questionable motives behind this deterministic game). And while Fatsis admirably doesn't make an explicit connection between Scrabble and life, it's a thread that runs throughout the book. He immerses himself in the world of competitive Scrabble players, and even becomes one of them, though he's met (and befriended) such characters as "G.I." (as in gastrointestinal) Joel, an avowed Communist, and a smart-drug addict. The key strength of /Word Freak/ is that it starts with a question — why would a person, usually a very intelligent person, devote their life to a board game like Scrabble — and shows you the answer by dragging you in. It's a diary of a person who falls in love with the game: the flirtation, the yearning glances, the first date, first kiss, first fight; the ecstasy and the misery; the hopes, plans, and ultimately the marriage (while this isn't covered in the book, according to Wikipedia, Fatsis proposed with Scrabble tiles). And by the end of the book, you'll want to pick up a bag of wooden blocks and play, too.

/Word Freak/ did a pretty good job of explaining to me why Scrabble was a good game — it doesn't have the pedigree nor the perfect-information beauty of chess or baduk, it doesn't have the intricate strategy of the newer German games (like the prince regent Settlers of Catan). Through the play-by-play analysis of some of Fatsis' games and the exultation of a brilliant play and the despair after a boneheaded one, I can see — kinda — why someone would pick Scrabble over chess. The players (and Fatsis himself, by the end) complain about the aleatoric nature of the game, but they know that that's part of the fun. The book also, more importantly, provides a glimpse into the arbitrary nature of games. To the top players, the dictionary is simply a rulebook. Scrabble's almost coincidental use of "real" words provides but the flimsiest veneer of applicability outside the game.

And nevertheless we play. Not only Scrabble, but also the other games; not only games, but all non-instrumental pursuits (I'm reminded of the great alpinist Lionel Terray's phrase: "Conquistadors of the Useless"). Fatsis makes a comparison to Camus' analysis of Sisyphus, which is probably apt. Games are meaningless, but so is life in general, and despite that we create and derive meaning out of them. Some of Fatsis' most infatuated friends say that Scrabble, with its ups and downs, validates their existence, and they're right. In the existentialist mode, it's not /what/ you do, but /that/ you do.

However, /Word Freak/ isn't perfect. It's too long, for one, and some of the play-by-plays (which are admittedly well-written; he was a sports journalist) can get tiring for a reader who doesn't know the strategy of competitive Scrabble. While Fatsis does his best to explain the jargon, he sometimes slips into it without warning (I still don't know what a "leave" is). Fatsis doesn't do enough to get to the bottom of why (at least in the late 90s and early aughts, when this book was written) women made up more than half of the competitive Scrabble scene (something very rare in other games) but almost never showed up in the top echelon. He's got but a noncommittal interview with a few expert women, and it's clear that both he and they are uncomfortable. Additionally, he's missing an interview with a Hasbro executive, a particularly puzzling omission as I assume his journalistic credentials would've helped him there. Maybe they thought he'd gone too native.

One thing that the book is not is a story about normal people who're very good at Scrabble. It's called Word /Freak/, after all. Fatsis admits that he's cherry-picked the most interesting players. I don't begrudge him for this; it means that the book's cast is made up of characters straight out of /One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest/. Overall, /Word Freak/ is a interesting and sometimes fascinating dive into the world of people who have chosen Scrabble as the main meaning-maker in their lives. People who are broken, shunned, and weirdos; people who have endless arguments over dictionaries and rack management and the state of the only proprietary board game that has had this much success. It's not without its faults, of course, but I enjoyed it well. 3.4 stars.

Highly recommend if you are a Scrabble freak! Written by a journalist who started competing so he could write a story but became hooked—the history, the people & the humor of the Scrabble tournament scene. Unlike other dry Scrabble strategy books, he has woven the strategy lessons into an entertaining tale full of Scrabble words. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll learn a few tricks! Put down the Words with Friends and dust off your Scrabble board (& download the list of all acceptable two-letter Scrabble words). You are about to be schooled by the Scrabble masters.

(My average word score & average total score has improved after reading his book. Newer edition includes an afterword for the 10 year anniversary).

Con: This book slowed down for me about halfway through (It must be a relatively long book!), but the first half was so good I still highly recommend it!

Fun to read at first, but a slog to get through. The best portions have to do with the relationship between the community that embraces this game / sport, and the companies that carry the rights to Scrabble, and the tensions that ensue between the two.

The characters (and they certainly are characters) are memorable. GI Joel (GI for Gastrointestinal!), Joe Edley, Marlon the Leftist, many others, all lovable (if certainly erratic) because of their love and obsession for this game.

While I thought that the book needed to be edited as I was slogging through the 2/3-point of the book, I now think that it's good that Fatsis left as much of the descriptions of gameplay as he did. In the future the book will be more useful, I think, as a documentary reference than as a tightly-knit memoir or story.

Fatsis becomes embedded in the Scrabble community, becoming a true insider in the anthropological sense. Readers should admire his dedication to the experiencing of training to be a Scrabble expert.

In conclusion, I recommend many parts of the book, but many will probably get as much out of the documentaries that have spawned from interest in Scrabble, and they will have spent less time. Unless you're a big Scrabble gamer yourself, speed through the descriptions of the play by play.

This was a super fun book. I like Scrabble anyway, but the writing was engaging and fun and showed so many angles of the competitive Scrabble. I mostly came away with the idea that I will never, ever get that great at Scrabble, but that there are a few things I could do to get enough better for what I want. :) The characters are interesting, and the author's immersion in the scene allows him to communicate the experience of the competitive Scrabble world in what seems to be a really authentic way.

It would be a fun bucket list item to become a rated Scrabble player, but to not embarrass myself I'd want to get a little better first.

hmm. i was fully expecting to love this book, but i had to stop a few chapters in. there was some interesting views into the world of competitive scrabble and portraits of its motely competitors, but i was bugged by the emphasis of points over love of new and interesting words. so much of it is about memorization and winning tactics, which, i guess is what the competition part is all about... but it just made me want to go play scrabble for fun instead of reading about all the people who take it so seriously it stops being fun.

Although it provides fascinating insight into the world of competitive Scrabble, this book also reminded me that what I dislike about Scrabble is the lack of context for words. I like using words and knowing what they mean; Scrabble involves only memorizing particular patterns of letters. As pointed out in the book, one doesn't even need to speak English to play in English, so long as one has memorized the spellings.

That being said, Fatsis does a fine job of drawing us into a world of obsession. The Know-It-All covers similar territory with a bit more humor.

This is a great book for scrabble nerds who understand the orgasmic elation of getting 7 letter bingos on a triple word score, watching with sadistic fervor your score double the points of your opponent. Scrabble is a sub-world of cultural and social norms where the most otherwise awkward, less than average weirdos become more than accepted, they become glorified champions. And now thanks to this book and the subsequent documentaries that followed, scrabble is now covered by ESPN. It has risen as a respected, legitimate sport that to me, is much more hardcore and intense than say, football.

I don't think the world of competitive Scrabble players is really one in which I want to spend any time myself, but it was pretty intriguing to peer inside and get a glimpse of what it is like. Then again, when Fatsis tried to do that, he got sucked in! Overall, Word Freak is a somewhat strange balance of non-fiction and memoir which sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. The memoir part, of Fatsis learning how to play competitive Scrabble himself, does do a good job of showing the reader what is involved, plus sharing strategies and approaches to the game in a manageable way. Sometimes, however, it gets a little weird as he himself gets obsessed and seems to lose fact of what he initially wanted to learn about and write about, and it also gets hard to trust his reporting reliability given that he has become such good friends with these people and wants to get along and move up in their world. Some of my favorite parts of the book were his side trails into the history of the game - how it was created, how it became popular, how tricky it is to have a competitive sport with a game that is copyrighted. I also enjoyed reading so many new words, although I personally think you should be able to define a word in order to be allowed to use it! After finishing, it definitely feels like it's time to go find a Scrabble board and play...

"word"

I didn't expect a book on competitive Scrabble players to be this interesting or this alarming. What begins as a literary endeavor for the author--exploring the world of competitive Scrabble so he could write a book about it--at some point turned into a Scrabble obsession of his own. Written in a gonzo journalism style, author Stefan Fatsis went from writing about the neuroses and peccadilloes of some of the top Scrabble players to developing his own. The book is as much about the danger of developing unhealthy obsessions as it is about Scrabble.

I’ve been a Scrabble player since grade school and consider myself a pretty good player, but I never realized how high the level of competitive play is and how far people go to play competitively. The subject is fascinating, especially the logic and probability that can be applied to the game. The players that the author followed were interesting but sad. My biggest problem with the book is that it went on way too long without adding new information. Even when I got to the end there was more: epilogue, afterword, appendix, sources, acknowledgments, about the author, footnotes.

A fun exploration of the bizarre characters surrounding the scrabble scene and their immense dedication to the game. If memorizing 200,000 words over a decade sounds like a good time then professional scrabble is your game and you could win tens of dollars doing it!

I’m a big fan of people dedicated to the offbeat and this book was such a fun peek into one such subculture. It’s written breezily and once you get used to style conventions and descriptions of moves and board positions (much like chess) it’s even tense at times wondering who will win the match.

I don't have enough good things to say about this book. The obsession, dedication, and sheer force of will it took is inspiring.

I think anyone can relate to what happens to the author; we are taken by surprise by our own interests all the time. Even readers can see the way these scrabble players are devoted to their sport. Perhaps in shorter bursts, but what is being rapt in a book of not its own obsession.

A truly incredible work, and one I feel lucky to have stumbled upon in a used bookstore. Wow.