Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble Players
by Stefan Fatsisbook data
924 ratings, 3.83 average rating, 202 reviews
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published
July 30th 2002
by Penguin (Non-Classics)
binding
Paperback, 384 pages
isbn
0142002267
(isbn13: 9780142002261)
description
Scrabble may be truly called America's game. But for every group of "living-room players" there is someone who is "at one with the boar...more
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 1340)
Read in July, 2007
Stephen Fatsis writes a fast-paced, edge-of-your-seat book on the quirky, obsessive, very male-dominated world of competitive Scrabble playing. Although the cast of characters is fascinating enough, I was more interested in Fatsis' own transformation from "living room" player to a high-ranking qualifier in major tournaments. He describes his initial frustration at losing to the blue hair set to even more frustration at not grasping expert game strategies. He learns that in order to bec...more
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Read in January, 2006
Fatsis, a columnist for various NY magazines, took a year off to investigate the world of competitive Scrabble. As someone who makes a living with words, and who grew up playing Scrabble, Fatsis does more than investigate this world; he immerses himself in it. The book functions half as nonfiction documentary, and half as memoir, as Fatsis details both the professional circuit and his rise through its ranks. Fatsis does a good job of balancing details of Scrabble’s history (both the history ...more
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Read in January, 2007
recommended to Nancy by:
Gwen GrayThis review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
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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...more
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Read in April, 2008
I feel a bit guilty listing this as "read," because I really only read the first third or so. I just couldn't get into it...I don't know if I'm just too distracted by life at the moment since I had a very similar criticism about another book that I was just reading, but I almost had to keep forcing myself to give this a try. Maybe I expected the real-life characters to be more likeable, kind-of like the documentary version of competitive Scrabble, Word Play. Anyhoo, I would love to ...more
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3 comments
Read in January, 2007
recommends it for:
scrabble lovers, but only the ones who are in it for the points
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...more
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Read in January, 2003
recommends it for:
everyone.
This book wins. What can you possibly learn about life from people who obessively play scrabble as their hobby and sometimes as their default profession? Quite a lot - about passion, about friendships between people - about being intensely devoted to something because you love it, not because it's popular or because others understand it. And the best part about it is you even start to catch a bit of enthusasm for playing scrabble! Read it. You'll like it.
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I believe that Stefan Fatsis is a sportswriter for the Wall Street Journal, and I hear him regularly speaking about sports on NPR, so I was a bit surprised to discover that he is also a fanatical Scrabble player. As a would-be Scrabble fanatic (if I had more time I would surely be a full-fledged one), I was drawn to the very notion of competitive Scrabble playing, and the deeper I got into this book the more I felt like I had entered an alternate universe populated by eccentric individuals who d...more
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Read in July, 2008
recommends it for:
Word Freaks
Who knew a book about the tournament Scrabble scene could be so interesting? I stumbled across this one at the bookstore a couple weeks ago. It caught my eye because the title "Word Freak" is spelled down the spine in distinctive wooden Scrabble tiles. I have always been a Scrabble fan, but only started playing the game again recently (it was the sole reason I initially signed up for a Facebook account). I sat down and read the intro and the first chapter while my 2-year-old played...more
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Disclaimer: I love words. I have competed in spelling bees, I have a degree in Linguistics, and I love word games like Scrabble and Boggle. So it was, I imagine, completely predictable that I would thoroughly enjoy this book (that would explain why someone gave it to me :-).
That said, I am sure Word Freak would appeal to many people who have even a passing interest in either words or subcultures. The subtitle is "Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive SC...more
That said, I am sure Word Freak would appeal to many people who have even a passing interest in either words or subcultures. The subtitle is "Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive SC...more
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First of all I saw a film called "Word Wars" which quickly became one of my favourite documentaries of all time and then a friend of mine at work lent me this book - and if you haven't read this or seen the film they are probably priorities.
This is the sort of book that allows you to say to yourself, "Gosh, truth really is stranger than fiction." Or perhaps, "It really does take all sorts to make the world". Either way, one is stuck with cliches.
I've neve...more
This is the sort of book that allows you to say to yourself, "Gosh, truth really is stranger than fiction." Or perhaps, "It really does take all sorts to make the world". Either way, one is stuck with cliches.
I've neve...more
Read in December, 2007
recommends it for:
the living room player of Scrabble
This book is about the obsessive and also likely for the Scrabble obsessive. If you get a kick out of anagrams and triple letter scores, you'll enjoy most of this book. You get play by plays, in depth personal info on the top Scrabble players in the nation (and world), tips and hints, separation of good and phony word plays. It's amazing to see some of the point scores they get. I'm talking triple digits on one play.
The only negative part of the book is that towards the end Fatsis gets uber ...more
The only negative part of the book is that towards the end Fatsis gets uber ...more
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Read in July, 2008
recommends it for:
word nerds, Scrabble players, people who like to read play-by-play accounts of tournaments
7/8/08: Well, I quit this book to read another, more entertaining one - my ever favorite format, The Novel. But now I have finished the other and so I'm back to this book. Because I'm not a quitter! And the "characters" are starting to grow on me (they are actually profiles of real, live people, not fictitious characters). Also, I now desperately want to own a Scrabble dictionary and/or play Scrabble in the park with eccentric people. So, even though I don't think this is an improvemen...more
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i really liked the documentary about the competitive scrabble world, which mostly covered the same players, but this book was so much better. it almost made me want to devote all the time i currently waste procrastinating to memorising lists of words. somehow it seems easier to become obsessed with a fairly pointless goal, like scrabble, rather than anything more productive, like my research. the best parts of this book are the characters, those people for whom scrabble validates their existence...more
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Read in March, 2008
I'm really enjoying this book and I'm only half-way through! It's by a journalist who wanted to report on the world of competitive Scrabble, but got sucked into it himself. So it's half reporting, half memoir. He tells the stories about the characters (and I do mean characters) that he meets in this world, but he intersperses it with linguistic wordplay; trivia about Scrabble and words and wordplay; some of the amazing plays and games; the history of Scrabble, and games in general in America; is...more
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This is a book about competitive scrabble and the people that play it. The author became an obsessive player himself, and so the book is at times dry to the non-initiate. The players are bizarre and competitive scrabble bears almost no relation to the living-room version of the game. It is a strange subculture indeed, and the book gives a history of the game and tons of scrabble words and strategy along with its portraits of the players. To quote from the back of the book: "...stars range f...more
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Read in March, 2007
Books tend to spark mini-obsessions with me, so I have to be careful reading them, from time to time. Well, most anything sparks mini-obsessions with me, so a book is as good a thing as any.
"Word Freak" got me playing Scrabble, which I'd never done before in my life. It also convinced me very quickly that I would never be a championship Scrabble player, so I didn't have to worry about this obession becoming anything serious. Fastis's account of the depths to which Scrabble players ...more
"Word Freak" got me playing Scrabble, which I'd never done before in my life. It also convinced me very quickly that I would never be a championship Scrabble player, so I didn't have to worry about this obession becoming anything serious. Fastis's account of the depths to which Scrabble players ...more
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Read in August, 2007
This book is just as fascinating as its subtitle implies. Whether or not you're into Scrabble, it's easy to get pulled into the author's first-hand account of the quirky Scrabble subculture and its kooky characters, especially as the author's journalistic foray turns into an all-consuming obsession with climbing the Scrabble ranks. I knew nothing about this classic board game before I picked up this book, but now I'm itching to get a board of my own. And I was reminded of the limits of my own vo...more
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Read in July, 2006
recommends it for:
nerds
This book changed my life. I went from having never seriously finished a game of Scrabble to the point where I can't even play normal people anymore. It hurts. Rooting for Fatsis at his best and worst tournament moments made me want to challenge myself to start from scratch and become one of those two-letter word knowing, Bingo rack-building, anagram sorting badasses.
The majority of the people who read this book love to make smarmy comments about the Scrabble-obsessed, but I can only attribute...more
The majority of the people who read this book love to make smarmy comments about the Scrabble-obsessed, but I can only attribute...more
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Read in August, 2008
recommends it for:
fanatical, obsessive Scrabble players
I struggled to complete this book. Word Freak focuses on Stefan Fatsis's quest to become one of the best Scrabble players in the country, while weaving in vignettes about many of the odd, anti-social expert scrabble players (many of whom seem incapable of holding down a steady job), and recounting the history of the creation of Scrabble and its transformation from invention to common household usage. Fatsis's book is well-written, but this reader wonders whether the same dogged obsession to beco...more
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In Word Freak by Stefan Fatsis, in what pick-up-Scrabble locale did the author get schooled by the local pros? Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble Players
a. Washington Square Park (New York, NY)
b. Rock Creek Park (Washington, D.C.)
c. Sugar House Park (Salt Lake City, UT)
d. Tompkins Square Park (New York, NY)
More trivia...
a. Washington Square Park (New York, NY)
b. Rock Creek Park (Washington, D.C.)
c. Sugar House Park (Salt Lake City, UT)
d. Tompkins Square Park (New York, NY)
More trivia...