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Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble Players
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 board." In Word Freak, Stefan Fatsis introduces readers to those few, exploring the underground world of colorful characters for which the Scrabble game is life — playing competitively in tournaments across the country. It is also the story of how the Scrabble game was invented by an unemployed architect during the Great Depression and how it has grown into the hugely successful, challenging, and beloved game it is today. Along the way, Fatsis chronicles his own obsession with the game and his development as a player from novice to expert. More than a book about hardcore Scrabble players, Word Freak is also an examination of notions of brilliance, memory, language, competition, and the mind that celebrates the uncanny creative powers in us all.
400 pages, Paperback
First published July 30, 2002
241 people are currently reading
5440 people want to read
About the author
Stefan Fatsis
11 books64 followersStefan Fatsis is an author, reporter and familiar voice to public-radio listeners nationwide.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 713 reviews
July 4, 2010
I should qualify my rating here by saying that I did not in fact like this book, as the literal interpretation of Goodreads' three-star rating would indicate-- I thought it was more of a two-star book ("it was OK")-- but I'm giving it a bonus star, because it contains a most valuable lesson that I don't know whether I could have learned so quickly and easily, had I not read this book.
As for the book itself: it's pretty hard to like, because the voice of the author, which also doubles as the persona of the "main character" in the ongoing story underlying the research and reporting, paints the author as a jerk. One the one hand, Fatsis seems to have no compunction about boasting about his superior Scrabble skills in comparison to other Scrabble-playing hoi polloi; on the other hand, when he becomes immersed in the world of seriously competitive Scrabble and finds that his skills and knowledge are woefully beneath the level of the pros, he wastes no time in tarring the pros as a bunch of maladjusted wacko nerds. This sour-grapes treatment reeks of intellectual bullying to me, and it makes it pretty hard to care about the author's experiences or sympathize with him whenever he receives a humbling defeat. This distaste lingers throughout the book and ultimately detracts from its enjoyability-- it's hard to like a book whose author and main character is a consummate dill-hole.
However, as I mentioned above, the experience of reading the book is somewhat redeemed by the valuable lesson it contains. Before reading this, I often wondered to myself: "Hey, I'm half decent at Scrabble. Should I maybe take it more seriously, and devote some of my spare time to trying to reach the next level of expertise? Should I enter tournaments and try to play competitively?" Now that I've read this book, I know the answers to these questions conclusively: Hell no! The author's vivid depiction of the world of competitive Scrabble makes it abundantly clear that one has no hope of becoming a serious Scrabble expert unless one is willing to devote the majority of one's free time (or probably, the majority of one's time, period) over many years to etching the complete Scrabble lexicon into one's memory, and also learning to think in anagrams to the same extent that we normally think in words. The relatively small group of players who form the highest ranks of the competitive world are on a plane that Scrabble hobbyists, no matter how good they are, cannot hope to attain without devoting themselves entirely to the game. Having learned this lesson via this book, I found myself feeling like a massive burden had been lifted from me-- I no longer need to think for even a second about whether I should attempt to more fully realize my "Scrabble potential." And I can thus go back to enjoying the game perhaps even more than I did before, now that I know that it can never be more than a hobby for me. And for this valuable knowledge, I owe Fatsis (and this book) my thanks.
As for the book itself: it's pretty hard to like, because the voice of the author, which also doubles as the persona of the "main character" in the ongoing story underlying the research and reporting, paints the author as a jerk. One the one hand, Fatsis seems to have no compunction about boasting about his superior Scrabble skills in comparison to other Scrabble-playing hoi polloi; on the other hand, when he becomes immersed in the world of seriously competitive Scrabble and finds that his skills and knowledge are woefully beneath the level of the pros, he wastes no time in tarring the pros as a bunch of maladjusted wacko nerds. This sour-grapes treatment reeks of intellectual bullying to me, and it makes it pretty hard to care about the author's experiences or sympathize with him whenever he receives a humbling defeat. This distaste lingers throughout the book and ultimately detracts from its enjoyability-- it's hard to like a book whose author and main character is a consummate dill-hole.
However, as I mentioned above, the experience of reading the book is somewhat redeemed by the valuable lesson it contains. Before reading this, I often wondered to myself: "Hey, I'm half decent at Scrabble. Should I maybe take it more seriously, and devote some of my spare time to trying to reach the next level of expertise? Should I enter tournaments and try to play competitively?" Now that I've read this book, I know the answers to these questions conclusively: Hell no! The author's vivid depiction of the world of competitive Scrabble makes it abundantly clear that one has no hope of becoming a serious Scrabble expert unless one is willing to devote the majority of one's free time (or probably, the majority of one's time, period) over many years to etching the complete Scrabble lexicon into one's memory, and also learning to think in anagrams to the same extent that we normally think in words. The relatively small group of players who form the highest ranks of the competitive world are on a plane that Scrabble hobbyists, no matter how good they are, cannot hope to attain without devoting themselves entirely to the game. Having learned this lesson via this book, I found myself feeling like a massive burden had been lifted from me-- I no longer need to think for even a second about whether I should attempt to more fully realize my "Scrabble potential." And I can thus go back to enjoying the game perhaps even more than I did before, now that I know that it can never be more than a hobby for me. And for this valuable knowledge, I owe Fatsis (and this book) my thanks.
May 4, 2018
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!
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!
January 10, 2008
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 of the game and the history of competitive tournaments), in-depth character portraits of the game’s quirkiest top players, and the rapid progression of his own skills. For those interested in getting better at Scrabble, Fatsis also details the lessons he learned and describes the various techniques used by the world’s best players. Ultimately, I had a few issues with the book that prevented it from being anything more than mediocre. First, as hard as Fatsis tries to make the tournaments come to life and convey their excitement, it isn’t enough. Scrabble tournaments simply aren’t exciting unless you are talented enough to grasp (and interested in grasping) the difficulty of the plays upon which the games are won or loss. Describing how playing a five-letter word instead of a seven-letter word cost someone a game doesn’t jump off the page no matter how good the prose. Second, what Fatsis recognizes about competitive Scrabble also becomes the undoing of this book: Scrabble tournaments are won and lost due to a player’s ability to spit out completely obscure words. Not only does this immediately distance 99% of all readers from this insular world, but it also makes the tournament summaries even less accessible. Fatsis describing someone playing WATERZOOI to win doesn’t resonate with anyone. Lastly, despite the book’s attempts to compare Scrabble to all other competitive pursuits and thus make the subject matter more relatable to readers, the obsessive behaviors displayed by the quirky characters upon whom Fatsis focuses his attention only serves to further emphasize how completely unlike other competitive pursuits Scrabble really is. An interesting read in the same way The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat is interesting – you want to read about crazy people. Otherwise, this book is in the take-it-or-leave-it category.
December 7, 2014
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.
June 22, 2021
Five stars, and a fifty point bonus for using all the letters.
The most fun I’ve had in a book for over a year, and rocketing straight into my top ten books all time, Word Freak was hard to put down, and may have improved my Scrabble game along the way!
Stefan Fatsis stepped away from The Wall Street Journal and into some obscure places with funny names, to sit across the Scrabble board from and learn the stories of the players, as well as of the classic game that drives them. Fatsis tells their tales, and relives his own attempt at reaching Scrabble experthood, with a few dozen invalid Scrabble words and altogether fake words thrown in just for giggles.
While he presents much of the strategy of the game, it is clear early and throughout the book that Scrabble is all about words—not definitions, just words—and studying which letters work together for big points. The multitude of types of word lists encountered grows a bit tedious, but the eccentric personalities of their creators and studiers more than makes up for that. Fastis lets us know in the introductory pages that there will be board diagrams throughout the book, but happily, they were few and far between, usually not a necessary visual for the telling of game action.
I found myself laughing to tears more than once, and riveted to every page. Meanwhile, I started seeing words differently and faster (maybe?) in my own games on the latest Scrabble app. Not wanting to get tournament-good with the required dedication to word list study, I think I’m safe for now.
There is at least one more recent edition—the author’s 10th anniversary release—than the original 2001 version, now somewhat dated. Along with many other letter combinations, QI is now valid in North American Scrabble as well abroad. That’s no insignificant difference, to a player!
This is a must-read for any serious Scrabble player, both for tips and for entertainment, but I also encourage non-players who are daring readers to take a chance on this terrific text. Word- and math-nerds will love the language quirks and the statistics, but there’s something worthwhile—even inspirational—in here for everyone.
The most fun I’ve had in a book for over a year, and rocketing straight into my top ten books all time, Word Freak was hard to put down, and may have improved my Scrabble game along the way!
Stefan Fatsis stepped away from The Wall Street Journal and into some obscure places with funny names, to sit across the Scrabble board from and learn the stories of the players, as well as of the classic game that drives them. Fatsis tells their tales, and relives his own attempt at reaching Scrabble experthood, with a few dozen invalid Scrabble words and altogether fake words thrown in just for giggles.
While he presents much of the strategy of the game, it is clear early and throughout the book that Scrabble is all about words—not definitions, just words—and studying which letters work together for big points. The multitude of types of word lists encountered grows a bit tedious, but the eccentric personalities of their creators and studiers more than makes up for that. Fastis lets us know in the introductory pages that there will be board diagrams throughout the book, but happily, they were few and far between, usually not a necessary visual for the telling of game action.
I found myself laughing to tears more than once, and riveted to every page. Meanwhile, I started seeing words differently and faster (maybe?) in my own games on the latest Scrabble app. Not wanting to get tournament-good with the required dedication to word list study, I think I’m safe for now.
There is at least one more recent edition—the author’s 10th anniversary release—than the original 2001 version, now somewhat dated. Along with many other letter combinations, QI is now valid in North American Scrabble as well abroad. That’s no insignificant difference, to a player!
This is a must-read for any serious Scrabble player, both for tips and for entertainment, but I also encourage non-players who are daring readers to take a chance on this terrific text. Word- and math-nerds will love the language quirks and the statistics, but there’s something worthwhile—even inspirational—in here for everyone.
February 10, 2017
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.
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.
May 9, 2008
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 never been very good at word games - something I'm a bit disappointed about, really - but if being good at word games turns one into someone like any of these characters. Well, look, it is probably for the best.
If you have ever wondered just what it would be like to have a vocation... No, that is possibly too nasty. But reading this book is fascinating if only because it is remarkable what you can train your mind to do. These people play anagrams - where they will call out a series of letters (in alphabetical order) such as aceinnoorstv and seconds later someone will say, "conversation". (I'm not going to tell you how long it took me to even get that into alphabetical order and make sure I had all the letters there - terribly embarrassing). Needless to say, these people do that in their heads.
If you like paying a brief visit to a world that - well - most people would only ever really want to visit, and even then maybe from a distance - this book will do it for you. The guy who wrote this book did more than just visit - and in a sense he paid the price. As the guy who lent me this book told me, just reading it will make you a better Scrabble player. If that sounds like a noble outcome in your life then this is the book for you.
But even if you are not interested in being better at Scrabble for the characters alone this book really is required reading.
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 never been very good at word games - something I'm a bit disappointed about, really - but if being good at word games turns one into someone like any of these characters. Well, look, it is probably for the best.
If you have ever wondered just what it would be like to have a vocation... No, that is possibly too nasty. But reading this book is fascinating if only because it is remarkable what you can train your mind to do. These people play anagrams - where they will call out a series of letters (in alphabetical order) such as aceinnoorstv and seconds later someone will say, "conversation". (I'm not going to tell you how long it took me to even get that into alphabetical order and make sure I had all the letters there - terribly embarrassing). Needless to say, these people do that in their heads.
If you like paying a brief visit to a world that - well - most people would only ever really want to visit, and even then maybe from a distance - this book will do it for you. The guy who wrote this book did more than just visit - and in a sense he paid the price. As the guy who lent me this book told me, just reading it will make you a better Scrabble player. If that sounds like a noble outcome in your life then this is the book for you.
But even if you are not interested in being better at Scrabble for the characters alone this book really is required reading.
September 12, 2024
I love playing Scrabble! It's a popular word game of skill and chance and journalist Stefan Fatsis entered the competitive world of Scrabble hoping for some material worthy of publishing. What he discovered was an intense sub culture with its own rules and guiding principles and a range of dedicated, intelligent and sometimes eccentric players all striving to win. Word Freak - Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble Players by Stefan Fatsis is the result of his research and complete immersion in the Scrabble scene.
First, it's important to know Scrabble can be played on a competitive level and the book largely takes place in the USA.
"To play competitive Scrabble, one has to get over the conceit of refusing to acknowledge certain words as real and accept that the game requires learning words that may not have any outside utility." Page 40
This is why competitive Scrabble doesn't appeal to me as a player. The author explains that vocabulary defines the better player in a living room situation, but in a competitive environment it's about mastering the rules of the game and memorising words. Two letter words are 'twos', three letter words 'threes' and so forth. Players keep track of tiles the way a card shark counts cards and there are endless strategies for discarding tiles, playing offensive and defensive and more.
Fatsis explains that players who compete at tournaments receive ranking points based on a very complicated system of wins and margins and are paired within divisions according to their latest ranking. A competitor will play multiple games at each tournament and Fatsis tells us just how hierarchical these tournaments are:
"In the playing room, you can't just sit wherever you fancy. The top-division tables typically are farthest from the main doors. And Table 1 of Division 1 - where the players with the best records meet in the latter stages of most tournaments - is usually in the farthest corner. The quality of play descends to the weakest novices in the room's opposite corner. And there isn't much interdivisional mingling. Experts have no interest in novice boards, and novices, who could benefit from learning new words or watching experts analyze positions, appear afraid to cross class boundaries." Page 37
In this way, the author quickly establishes the basics of competitive Scrabble and is glad to be warmly welcomed into the fold so to speak. Players knows he's a journalist from The Wall Street Journal and readily answer his questions while encouraging him to improve his game.
Many of the top players enjoy anagramming with each other in a playfully competitive nature and intellect is celebrated. Anagramming involves arranging tiles alphabetically on a rack - or saying them aloud - and identifying words made from the letters. This helps the players refine their skills and see the potential in the rack, and the majority of highly ranked players have created or implemented some kind of study program to learn and remember words.
There's quite a lot of content around the accepted dictionary of words, how it began and how it's updated etc.
"The Scrabble world decided that The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary [OSPD], first published in 1978, would for the purposes of the game, answer the question: What is a word?" Pages 40-41
But just to complicate things, there are two separate word sources that govern the game of Scrabble in North America and Great Britain.
"The new book is called the Official Tournament and Club Word List, and is known as the OWL." Page 41
I'd elaborate further but it gets quite confusing, suffice to say that Americans are at a significant disadvantage when playing overseas. Some embrace the additional words available to them, whilst others - predictably - refuse to change; essentially creating two camps. The deletion of offensive words caused a ruckus in the Scrabble community and several players who did a lot of work contributing to dictionary entries and study programs have been screwed over and distanced themselves from competitive play as a result.
There was even drama at the top level, with the dissolution of the National Scrabble Association (NSA) and the formation of the North American Scrabble Players Association (NASPA) in its place. Some players had various issues with the way NASPA was organising things and while many readers may find this overkill or boring, my interest - just - carried me through. It seems politics and drama exists everywhere.
It's unclear when exactly Fatsis becomes subsumed by Scrabble, but he quickly fixates on his rating, loses his temper when he doesn't play well and embarks on a range of study techniques, implementing tips from top players along the way.
Here's an example of some advice from Joe Edley that we can all learn from:
"Studying Scrabble words is like walking around the world, but as you start walking your feet start getting bigger. Every step you take is taking you farther. The more you study, the more ability you develop and the easier it becomes to learn more." Page 133
I'd say reading is the same! This is excellent advice and it can be applied to more than just Scrabble. Witnessing the author's improvement and progression through the rankings as he dedicated more and more time to it was satisfying. Often frustrating for the author himself, it was hard not to become invested in the nitty gritty details of specific plays gone wrong, missed opportunities, excellent plays and hard won victories.
Towards the end of the book, the author acknowledges that he's played more than a thousand games of Scrabble since embarking on his journey to write about the sub culture and it's taken him to unexpected places. I was surprised at the depth of relationships he developed over the course of the book, always rooming and carpooling with fellow players, regularly socialising outside of competitions and playing endless games in between.
Openly sharing their advice, strategies and study techniques, Fatsis also shared personal observations of their character, personality and lifestyle choices giving the reader quite an intimate view of some of the players. I often wondered whether he'd crossed the line and later learned in the Afterword that at least one player was unhappy about the way in which he was portrayed in the book.
Originally published in 2001, my new copy has an updated Preface and - cleverly titled - Afterwordfreak published in 2011. I particularly enjoyed reading updates on players who featured quite prominently in the book, and in a very meta way, the impact Word Freak had on new and upcoming players in the ten years it's been on shelves. The increase in technology and the emergence of new players who grew up playing bots online and using apps to improve their skills have now entered the fray. You'd assume the old-school players would feel threatened by them, but they seem to enjoy seeing new talent emerging and celebrate the successes of players decades younger than themselves.
While reading Word Freak I started playing the odd game of Scrabble online - against the computer - and found myself enjoying the game immensely and implementing many of the techniques outlined in this book. Word Freak by Stefan Fatsis was a terrific deep dive into the competitive world of Scrabble and I hope to watch the subsequent documentary Word Wars.
First, it's important to know Scrabble can be played on a competitive level and the book largely takes place in the USA.
"To play competitive Scrabble, one has to get over the conceit of refusing to acknowledge certain words as real and accept that the game requires learning words that may not have any outside utility." Page 40
This is why competitive Scrabble doesn't appeal to me as a player. The author explains that vocabulary defines the better player in a living room situation, but in a competitive environment it's about mastering the rules of the game and memorising words. Two letter words are 'twos', three letter words 'threes' and so forth. Players keep track of tiles the way a card shark counts cards and there are endless strategies for discarding tiles, playing offensive and defensive and more.
Fatsis explains that players who compete at tournaments receive ranking points based on a very complicated system of wins and margins and are paired within divisions according to their latest ranking. A competitor will play multiple games at each tournament and Fatsis tells us just how hierarchical these tournaments are:
"In the playing room, you can't just sit wherever you fancy. The top-division tables typically are farthest from the main doors. And Table 1 of Division 1 - where the players with the best records meet in the latter stages of most tournaments - is usually in the farthest corner. The quality of play descends to the weakest novices in the room's opposite corner. And there isn't much interdivisional mingling. Experts have no interest in novice boards, and novices, who could benefit from learning new words or watching experts analyze positions, appear afraid to cross class boundaries." Page 37
In this way, the author quickly establishes the basics of competitive Scrabble and is glad to be warmly welcomed into the fold so to speak. Players knows he's a journalist from The Wall Street Journal and readily answer his questions while encouraging him to improve his game.
Many of the top players enjoy anagramming with each other in a playfully competitive nature and intellect is celebrated. Anagramming involves arranging tiles alphabetically on a rack - or saying them aloud - and identifying words made from the letters. This helps the players refine their skills and see the potential in the rack, and the majority of highly ranked players have created or implemented some kind of study program to learn and remember words.
There's quite a lot of content around the accepted dictionary of words, how it began and how it's updated etc.
"The Scrabble world decided that The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary [OSPD], first published in 1978, would for the purposes of the game, answer the question: What is a word?" Pages 40-41
But just to complicate things, there are two separate word sources that govern the game of Scrabble in North America and Great Britain.
"The new book is called the Official Tournament and Club Word List, and is known as the OWL." Page 41
I'd elaborate further but it gets quite confusing, suffice to say that Americans are at a significant disadvantage when playing overseas. Some embrace the additional words available to them, whilst others - predictably - refuse to change; essentially creating two camps. The deletion of offensive words caused a ruckus in the Scrabble community and several players who did a lot of work contributing to dictionary entries and study programs have been screwed over and distanced themselves from competitive play as a result.
There was even drama at the top level, with the dissolution of the National Scrabble Association (NSA) and the formation of the North American Scrabble Players Association (NASPA) in its place. Some players had various issues with the way NASPA was organising things and while many readers may find this overkill or boring, my interest - just - carried me through. It seems politics and drama exists everywhere.
It's unclear when exactly Fatsis becomes subsumed by Scrabble, but he quickly fixates on his rating, loses his temper when he doesn't play well and embarks on a range of study techniques, implementing tips from top players along the way.
Here's an example of some advice from Joe Edley that we can all learn from:
"Studying Scrabble words is like walking around the world, but as you start walking your feet start getting bigger. Every step you take is taking you farther. The more you study, the more ability you develop and the easier it becomes to learn more." Page 133
I'd say reading is the same! This is excellent advice and it can be applied to more than just Scrabble. Witnessing the author's improvement and progression through the rankings as he dedicated more and more time to it was satisfying. Often frustrating for the author himself, it was hard not to become invested in the nitty gritty details of specific plays gone wrong, missed opportunities, excellent plays and hard won victories.
Towards the end of the book, the author acknowledges that he's played more than a thousand games of Scrabble since embarking on his journey to write about the sub culture and it's taken him to unexpected places. I was surprised at the depth of relationships he developed over the course of the book, always rooming and carpooling with fellow players, regularly socialising outside of competitions and playing endless games in between.
Openly sharing their advice, strategies and study techniques, Fatsis also shared personal observations of their character, personality and lifestyle choices giving the reader quite an intimate view of some of the players. I often wondered whether he'd crossed the line and later learned in the Afterword that at least one player was unhappy about the way in which he was portrayed in the book.
Originally published in 2001, my new copy has an updated Preface and - cleverly titled - Afterwordfreak published in 2011. I particularly enjoyed reading updates on players who featured quite prominently in the book, and in a very meta way, the impact Word Freak had on new and upcoming players in the ten years it's been on shelves. The increase in technology and the emergence of new players who grew up playing bots online and using apps to improve their skills have now entered the fray. You'd assume the old-school players would feel threatened by them, but they seem to enjoy seeing new talent emerging and celebrate the successes of players decades younger than themselves.
While reading Word Freak I started playing the odd game of Scrabble online - against the computer - and found myself enjoying the game immensely and implementing many of the techniques outlined in this book. Word Freak by Stefan Fatsis was a terrific deep dive into the competitive world of Scrabble and I hope to watch the subsequent documentary Word Wars.
January 1, 2016
This is an enjoyable book. Not too deep, and I could do with a little less of Fatsis's "goggling at the sideshow freaks" attitude. Perhaps this is because I recognize a number of similarities between the subculture of competitive SCRABBLE and the subculture of science fiction pro-/fandom, and, yeah, the jokes get old. On the other hand, I do very much like the way he charts his own descent (or ascent, depending on how you want to look at it) from relatively ordinary journalist to SCRABBLE geek. He's not a geek at the start of the book (which makes it a little disconcerting to read, if you are a geek), but he is one by the end.
May 20, 2007
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.
September 26, 2007
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.
July 13, 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 become a champion Scrabble player, you have to make it your life: study constantly, develop anagramming skills, memorize 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 letter words and their modifiers, and learn and re-learn the combinations of letters to make all-important bingos (the 50 point bonus earned by using all 7 letters on your rack). Some of the ways that top players study range from obvious (flash cards) to the insane (memorizing complex pneumonic phrases).
The game is also not without its controversies, not the least of which is the Official Word List which is in need of major revisions, cites often obscure words some of which are not in any dictionary, and is censored of "objectionable" words. Not to mention that overseas competitions use British words as well, allowing thousands of additional playable words. Included in all this is a fair chunk of Scrabble history including the odd fact that it is owned by two games companies. (Hasbro only has the North American rights, Mattel the rest of the world). "Word Freak" contains the elements of riveting sports writing told by the aspiring insider.
The game is also not without its controversies, not the least of which is the Official Word List which is in need of major revisions, cites often obscure words some of which are not in any dictionary, and is censored of "objectionable" words. Not to mention that overseas competitions use British words as well, allowing thousands of additional playable words. Included in all this is a fair chunk of Scrabble history including the odd fact that it is owned by two games companies. (Hasbro only has the North American rights, Mattel the rest of the world). "Word Freak" contains the elements of riveting sports writing told by the aspiring insider.
December 15, 2019
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.
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.
May 31, 2021
I play Scrabble weekly at Heirloom Books with an old friend, the two of us scoring in the 300-400s usually, though he made 501 a week ago. The games are non-competitive in the sense that we allow dictionary perusal and have no challenge penalties. I've been playing the game occasionally since adolescence.
Author Fatsis, sports writer for the WSJ, tells the story of how he entered the world of 'professional' Scrabble in order to write this book. Much of the text consists of detailed descriptions of his own play and progress as well as thumbnail profiles of some of his fellow players. Frankly, I found most of that rather boring, enjoying more the two chapters on the creation of the game and its corporate history. Indeed, the descriptions of Scrabble study, of what it takes to become a 'professional', to actually make money as a player, are pretty depressing as so much of the effort is invested in memorizing word lists, prefix lists and suffix lists.
What I'd be interested in would be play that required knowledge of the meaning of the words played. I'd also prefer the use of an agreed upon standard dictionary of the English language, not the 'official' Scrabble dictionaries of the UK, USA or joint UK/USA which currently allow such 'words' as 'sh', 'shh', 'shhh', 'eeew', 'ab' and the like.
Author Fatsis, sports writer for the WSJ, tells the story of how he entered the world of 'professional' Scrabble in order to write this book. Much of the text consists of detailed descriptions of his own play and progress as well as thumbnail profiles of some of his fellow players. Frankly, I found most of that rather boring, enjoying more the two chapters on the creation of the game and its corporate history. Indeed, the descriptions of Scrabble study, of what it takes to become a 'professional', to actually make money as a player, are pretty depressing as so much of the effort is invested in memorizing word lists, prefix lists and suffix lists.
What I'd be interested in would be play that required knowledge of the meaning of the words played. I'd also prefer the use of an agreed upon standard dictionary of the English language, not the 'official' Scrabble dictionaries of the UK, USA or joint UK/USA which currently allow such 'words' as 'sh', 'shh', 'shhh', 'eeew', 'ab' and the like.
February 13, 2017
It was a 4 Star for me at the beginning & again at the conclusion, but in between was really simply TMI!!!!!.... It was a play by play... literally... Maybe it's because I'm into Scrabble... but not that into Scrabble... but even merely one one-hundreth of the intensity expressed in this nonfiction work causes me to not only see the board game in a whole new light, but in a negative way... The one word review of this book is:
Intense.
Intense.
July 16, 2014
Well, I guess there is a book about everything, even the world of competitive Scrabble.
If I remember correctly, Tom and I found this at a library used book sale, read the back, exchanged a couple of "Eh, why not?"s and added it to our haul. A few months after that, Stefan Fatsis came out with another book and scheduled a book talk at Politics & Prose. We decided to attend. It was an interesting enough talk, but one thing I noticed was that during the Q&A, those doing the questioning continued to steer the conversation back toward Scrabble instead of toward the new book that Fatsis was there to promote. Tom read Word Freak soon after and really enjoyed it; it took me a while to get around to it, but know I can say I've read it too.
It was better than I was expecting. I admit, I was a bit skeptical that Fatsis was going to be able to spend 372 pages talking about Scrabble and hold my interest the entire time. He succeeded. Though the book is wide-ranging in its scope (within the Scrabble universe), it still manages to feel focused, which is a feat. The book covers everything from the origins and history of the game, to the strategy involved at the top levels of play, to the colorful cast of characters that inhabit the competitive circuit (I should get an alliteration award for that sentence...). Woven within these many different topics, we get a front-row seat to watch Fatsis struggle to reach an "expert" rating in competitive Scrabble.
What start out as a George Plimpton-esque bit of "participatory journalism" becomes much more as Fatsis becomes capital-H Hooked on the game. I'm always skeptical of authors who are an active part of the narrative they are writing doing things that are oh-so-conveniently perfect for the story they are trying to tell. That being said, Fatsis strikes me as genuine, both because of how he writes about his frustration and obsession with improving his Scrabble game, as well as the fact that he is still quite highly rated and an active participant in the competitive Scrabble scene over a decade after finishing and publicizing the book (I may have spent some time poking around websites detailing Scrabble player ratings and tournament results).
Fatsis did an excellent job of showing why Scrabble is an atypical board game - one that should be grouped with relatively ancient chess or backgammon instead of its more pedestrian contemporaries like Monopoly or Life. The skill involved in Scrabble is incredible: a mixture of word knowledge via memorization (which as detailed in the book, is insane - tens of thousands of words by the top experts), experience with how to manage the board, as well as having a solid understand of the odds and probability involved in drawing tiles. And, even more impressively, he did so in a way that was actually interesting and made we want to play some Scrabble. No mean feat.
Competitive Scrabble attracts a wide array of individuals, and learning about them and their eccentricities was one of my favorite things about the book. Though many of these experts have their quirks, Fatsis for the most part portrays them in such an endearing manner that I want to hang out with them around a Scrabble board. Again, I may have spent some time looking up some of these folks on the Scrabble website, trying to put faces with names and checking in on whether they are still playing ten years later and if so, how they are faring.
Additionally, in poking around these websites, it appears there have been some rather major changes since Fatsis wrote his book, including the abolishment of the National Scrabble Association, which ran the competitive circuit. I would love an update from Fatsis on the various personalities and state of the game today.
I remember from Fatsis' book talk at Politics & Prose that he runs a local Scrabble club at a library in Northwest DC. Reading this book made me want to rescue my Scrabble set from my parents' house when we go visit and (after a bit of practice of course) head to the club to play a few games.
If I remember correctly, Tom and I found this at a library used book sale, read the back, exchanged a couple of "Eh, why not?"s and added it to our haul. A few months after that, Stefan Fatsis came out with another book and scheduled a book talk at Politics & Prose. We decided to attend. It was an interesting enough talk, but one thing I noticed was that during the Q&A, those doing the questioning continued to steer the conversation back toward Scrabble instead of toward the new book that Fatsis was there to promote. Tom read Word Freak soon after and really enjoyed it; it took me a while to get around to it, but know I can say I've read it too.
It was better than I was expecting. I admit, I was a bit skeptical that Fatsis was going to be able to spend 372 pages talking about Scrabble and hold my interest the entire time. He succeeded. Though the book is wide-ranging in its scope (within the Scrabble universe), it still manages to feel focused, which is a feat. The book covers everything from the origins and history of the game, to the strategy involved at the top levels of play, to the colorful cast of characters that inhabit the competitive circuit (I should get an alliteration award for that sentence...). Woven within these many different topics, we get a front-row seat to watch Fatsis struggle to reach an "expert" rating in competitive Scrabble.
What start out as a George Plimpton-esque bit of "participatory journalism" becomes much more as Fatsis becomes capital-H Hooked on the game. I'm always skeptical of authors who are an active part of the narrative they are writing doing things that are oh-so-conveniently perfect for the story they are trying to tell. That being said, Fatsis strikes me as genuine, both because of how he writes about his frustration and obsession with improving his Scrabble game, as well as the fact that he is still quite highly rated and an active participant in the competitive Scrabble scene over a decade after finishing and publicizing the book (I may have spent some time poking around websites detailing Scrabble player ratings and tournament results).
Fatsis did an excellent job of showing why Scrabble is an atypical board game - one that should be grouped with relatively ancient chess or backgammon instead of its more pedestrian contemporaries like Monopoly or Life. The skill involved in Scrabble is incredible: a mixture of word knowledge via memorization (which as detailed in the book, is insane - tens of thousands of words by the top experts), experience with how to manage the board, as well as having a solid understand of the odds and probability involved in drawing tiles. And, even more impressively, he did so in a way that was actually interesting and made we want to play some Scrabble. No mean feat.
Competitive Scrabble attracts a wide array of individuals, and learning about them and their eccentricities was one of my favorite things about the book. Though many of these experts have their quirks, Fatsis for the most part portrays them in such an endearing manner that I want to hang out with them around a Scrabble board. Again, I may have spent some time looking up some of these folks on the Scrabble website, trying to put faces with names and checking in on whether they are still playing ten years later and if so, how they are faring.
Additionally, in poking around these websites, it appears there have been some rather major changes since Fatsis wrote his book, including the abolishment of the National Scrabble Association, which ran the competitive circuit. I would love an update from Fatsis on the various personalities and state of the game today.
I remember from Fatsis' book talk at Politics & Prose that he runs a local Scrabble club at a library in Northwest DC. Reading this book made me want to rescue my Scrabble set from my parents' house when we go visit and (after a bit of practice of course) head to the club to play a few games.
February 10, 2009
Original review written February 9, 2004
I found this book a fascinating example of how diverse and quirky people can be. I love Scrabble, and am a fairly decent "living room" player. Stepping into the world of competitive playing was an eye opener. I am a literate, well educated, articulate person. I was totally stumped by so many of the words that players came up with in the stress of competition. It was a bit frustrating for me, as each time I came across a new word I had to reach for the dictionary to look it up. (Which meant that my reading was somewhat halted- having to make such frequent stops- one page I had to stop 24 times- after that, I refused to keep count- which is good, because I can no longer remember what all the new vocabulary meant!)
I loved reading the history of the game. We have one of the early sets from the 50's and it is a prized possession. No matter how I may lust after the fancy ones that spin and turn, I won't give up my childhood set.
There were things I found distracting when reading the book- because I had to read it in short bursts and hops, I had to constantly refresh myself what some of the shorthand and symbols meant.
I am slightly familiar with the world of competitive chess and the regulars of bingo- of competitive sports as well. This was a glimpse into another type of competitive gaming- and made me itch to get my hands on the scrabble tiles again.
But ultimately, this was so far removed from my scrabble experiences, that I had a hard time relating.
This is an additional comment I made when I read Maggie's review February 10, 2009
I am a total scrabble-holic (finally had to go cold turkey for online scrabble (which was fun because you had all the time you needed to mull over the tiles), because it was eating my life. ) I read this before the invention of online scrabble, where people cheat like the dickens (I'm convinced they have to -- there must be lists of 7 letter words and programs for figuring out combinations etc. That's another reason I quit on-line scrabble. It was too tempting and too easy to potentially cheat, and I don't need that black mark on my soul. I have quite enough already, thank-you-very-much.)
I found this book a fascinating example of how diverse and quirky people can be. I love Scrabble, and am a fairly decent "living room" player. Stepping into the world of competitive playing was an eye opener. I am a literate, well educated, articulate person. I was totally stumped by so many of the words that players came up with in the stress of competition. It was a bit frustrating for me, as each time I came across a new word I had to reach for the dictionary to look it up. (Which meant that my reading was somewhat halted- having to make such frequent stops- one page I had to stop 24 times- after that, I refused to keep count- which is good, because I can no longer remember what all the new vocabulary meant!)
I loved reading the history of the game. We have one of the early sets from the 50's and it is a prized possession. No matter how I may lust after the fancy ones that spin and turn, I won't give up my childhood set.
There were things I found distracting when reading the book- because I had to read it in short bursts and hops, I had to constantly refresh myself what some of the shorthand and symbols meant.
I am slightly familiar with the world of competitive chess and the regulars of bingo- of competitive sports as well. This was a glimpse into another type of competitive gaming- and made me itch to get my hands on the scrabble tiles again.
But ultimately, this was so far removed from my scrabble experiences, that I had a hard time relating.
This is an additional comment I made when I read Maggie's review February 10, 2009
I am a total scrabble-holic (finally had to go cold turkey for online scrabble (which was fun because you had all the time you needed to mull over the tiles), because it was eating my life. ) I read this before the invention of online scrabble, where people cheat like the dickens (I'm convinced they have to -- there must be lists of 7 letter words and programs for figuring out combinations etc. That's another reason I quit on-line scrabble. It was too tempting and too easy to potentially cheat, and I don't need that black mark on my soul. I have quite enough already, thank-you-very-much.)
April 24, 2014
I’ve had his book sitting on my shelf for a while, and I finally decided to read it. I remember it being a best seller with great reviews so I was expecting a fun breezy read about competitive scrabble. What it is a slog that takes all the fun out of scrabble and it’s unexpectedly sexist. I’m about halfway through and I might not finish, which is seriously rare for me.
The author engaged in scrabble tournaments and one thing I’ve learned is that if you want to take all the fun out of scrabble then enter a tournament. When you think of the game of scrabble you think of words don’t you? Maybe that’s because it’s a word game, but According to the author scrabble isn’t a word game, it’s a math game and your vocabulary doesn’t even matter. You don’t need to know that a Kwijibo is a North American Balding ape, you just need to know that there is such a word as Kwijibo and you need to memorize list after list of these words while giving no thought to their meanings at all. Ugh, what’s the point if I wanted to play a math game I would play, well I wouldn’t play a math game at all, and neither would you. That’s why there are no math games as successful as Scrabble.
Competitive scrabble players not even caring about the words or having a good vocabulary isn’t even the biggest flaw in this book. It is incredibly sexist. The author spend chapter after chapter describing the top ranked male winners of scrabble. He goes into great detail about how quirky they are, this one’s an unsuccessful comedian, this one is a slob, this one takes 1200 vitamins a day, while the top ranking women’s names are rarely even mentioned.
Usually when women are mentioned it’s negative, like I played so badly I lost to Jane, a novice. (Or Dawn, or Shirley, or whoever.) The author takes on a smug superior tone whenever he plays a woman. There is a whole category he dismisses as the blue hairs, and he goes on and on about how he has to graduate to the next level so he won’t be trapped forever playing the blue hairs. He is not only sexist but ageist too.
To me it’s a complete mystery how this book got to be so well known and a best seller. If you see it at your local goodwill don’t bother.
The author engaged in scrabble tournaments and one thing I’ve learned is that if you want to take all the fun out of scrabble then enter a tournament. When you think of the game of scrabble you think of words don’t you? Maybe that’s because it’s a word game, but According to the author scrabble isn’t a word game, it’s a math game and your vocabulary doesn’t even matter. You don’t need to know that a Kwijibo is a North American Balding ape, you just need to know that there is such a word as Kwijibo and you need to memorize list after list of these words while giving no thought to their meanings at all. Ugh, what’s the point if I wanted to play a math game I would play, well I wouldn’t play a math game at all, and neither would you. That’s why there are no math games as successful as Scrabble.
Competitive scrabble players not even caring about the words or having a good vocabulary isn’t even the biggest flaw in this book. It is incredibly sexist. The author spend chapter after chapter describing the top ranked male winners of scrabble. He goes into great detail about how quirky they are, this one’s an unsuccessful comedian, this one is a slob, this one takes 1200 vitamins a day, while the top ranking women’s names are rarely even mentioned.
Usually when women are mentioned it’s negative, like I played so badly I lost to Jane, a novice. (Or Dawn, or Shirley, or whoever.) The author takes on a smug superior tone whenever he plays a woman. There is a whole category he dismisses as the blue hairs, and he goes on and on about how he has to graduate to the next level so he won’t be trapped forever playing the blue hairs. He is not only sexist but ageist too.
To me it’s a complete mystery how this book got to be so well known and a best seller. If you see it at your local goodwill don’t bother.
June 28, 2010
You probably need to be a Scrabble enthusiast or some other kind of word nerd (spelling, crossword puzzles) to really enjoy this book. I am, so I did. The intricate technicalities of playing Scrabble at a stratospheric level were the most interesting things in the book.
I was taken aback, however, by Fatsis's sexism. Many times he scoffs at having to play middle-aged women or "blue hairs." As someone who fits into the first group, I could not find myself rooting for Fatsis as the story increasingly turns upon his own quest to become a highly competitive player. I did find the stories of Marlon, Matt, G.I. Joel and other brilliant misfits reasonably compelling, though.
I was taken aback, however, by Fatsis's sexism. Many times he scoffs at having to play middle-aged women or "blue hairs." As someone who fits into the first group, I could not find myself rooting for Fatsis as the story increasingly turns upon his own quest to become a highly competitive player. I did find the stories of Marlon, Matt, G.I. Joel and other brilliant misfits reasonably compelling, though.
April 28, 2023
This reminded me of the spelling bee at the start, but quickly turned into a look at some of the "personalities" in the game, and Fatsis' attempt not to become one (while still achieving expert status). I get the appeal of focusing on the characters - in a descriptive sense - but I would have liked to see more balance. The women were barely there and it seems like there were high achievers who also held down day jobs and who I would have liked to hear more from, even if they weren't as quirky. The book was interesting overall and I definitely didn't know the inner workings of competition. Enjoyable as a whole, with some annoyances.
March 18, 2016
I lingered over this book
for days. I didn't want
to stop reading about
Scrabble and Scrabble
crazed fanatics.
for days. I didn't want
to stop reading about
Scrabble and Scrabble
crazed fanatics.
August 1, 2021
Fascinating read. Highly recommended for Scrabble/word fans . for a full review please go to https://thebooksmithblog.wordpress.com
January 1, 2025
This book should have been an article.
January 21, 2025
Nothing bad, but felt like it dragged on. It’s truly all scrabble talk for 400 pages.
July 25, 2021
If you ever wanted to know about competitive Scrabble, you will learn a lot about it in this book. The author immerses himself in the competitive Scrabble world. He shares his experiences, what he learned and who he met along the way. He teaches us about how competitive Scrabble differs from those who play casually at home. We meet very interesting people who teach the author how to become better at Scrabble. Along with TONS of practice we follow him from a beginner to a higher level player (I won’t spoil it by specifying how good he gets.)
The book includes LOTS of specific words that he or others plays. The author marks words a certain way to specify if they are phony (not real words according to scrabble) or are acceptable words in North America or Great Britain. At times, board layouts are even shared to complement the stories.
This is a long book (at least to me) at over 400 pages and a heavy read. It is not quick reading. I chose to read it little bits at a time as a bathroom book. Although I appreciated the Scrabble tips, I enjoyed “meeting” other Scrabble players more. The players we meet are an odd bunch. That’s what makes them fun though.
The only downside of the book was that at times it really dragged on with all the words played. I preferred the memoir style reading parts more than the discussions of specific words. Well I liked the discussion of words in that I love reading about language but sometimes it was just too much.
The book includes LOTS of specific words that he or others plays. The author marks words a certain way to specify if they are phony (not real words according to scrabble) or are acceptable words in North America or Great Britain. At times, board layouts are even shared to complement the stories.
This is a long book (at least to me) at over 400 pages and a heavy read. It is not quick reading. I chose to read it little bits at a time as a bathroom book. Although I appreciated the Scrabble tips, I enjoyed “meeting” other Scrabble players more. The players we meet are an odd bunch. That’s what makes them fun though.
The only downside of the book was that at times it really dragged on with all the words played. I preferred the memoir style reading parts more than the discussions of specific words. Well I liked the discussion of words in that I love reading about language but sometimes it was just too much.
August 19, 2023
Woof- probably a 2.5 ⭐️ review, but I know that I will have to make a decision whether it is two or three by the end of this review. There is probably a lot of potential in this book, and generally, I love the "author immerses themselves in the topic" genre. Bill Bryson and Hunter S. Thompson are notable examples. Unfortunately, Fatsis isn't as self-aware as Bryson or as gleefully insane as Thompson.
Fatsis is probably a normal person whose story would have been much more appealing if we had any way to relate to him. His quest for Scrabble expertise seems relatable enough. Could you break three hours in a marathon? Earn a Masters? Learn how to reconstruct a classic car? But Fatsis just dives into this Scrabble journey with very little backstory and hopes we follow along with his intensity.
The world of competitive Scrabble seems to be built on people who are similarly unrelatable. Almost all are middle-aged men, often unemployed or underemployed, with personality quirks that even Fatsis can't make appealing. And he likes these people. Many of them consistently rely on Fatsis for money, travel and shelter. Fatsis insists these repeated intrusions are based in friendship, but it seems to be a mutually exploitative relationship. Elite players get financial assistance and Fatsis gets insight into the higher level of Scrabble, as well as opportunities he may not have previously had.
The research and personal investment are laudable, but Fatsis doesn't really humanize anyone to a point where the story is engaging. He is short sighted in covering the lower levels, and intentionally includes a scant two pages to women players, who are approximately 50% of the field.
Fatsis is probably a normal person whose story would have been much more appealing if we had any way to relate to him. His quest for Scrabble expertise seems relatable enough. Could you break three hours in a marathon? Earn a Masters? Learn how to reconstruct a classic car? But Fatsis just dives into this Scrabble journey with very little backstory and hopes we follow along with his intensity.
The world of competitive Scrabble seems to be built on people who are similarly unrelatable. Almost all are middle-aged men, often unemployed or underemployed, with personality quirks that even Fatsis can't make appealing. And he likes these people. Many of them consistently rely on Fatsis for money, travel and shelter. Fatsis insists these repeated intrusions are based in friendship, but it seems to be a mutually exploitative relationship. Elite players get financial assistance and Fatsis gets insight into the higher level of Scrabble, as well as opportunities he may not have previously had.
The research and personal investment are laudable, but Fatsis doesn't really humanize anyone to a point where the story is engaging. He is short sighted in covering the lower levels, and intentionally includes a scant two pages to women players, who are approximately 50% of the field.
April 10, 2022
I thought I would like this book, but didn't think I'd spend half a day laying outside reading almost the entire second half. Each chapter of the book follows the characters of the pro scrabble world as they live their weird lives and compete at the national and international levels of the game. I loved how crazy each person was and how differently they all led their lives, while competing at the same game. From genius math students to homeless people, the author got stories and scrabble strategy from every type of player. He also become one of the top players in the country. I liked the story Marlon, always angry and the world and Edley, the champion who refused to learn the overseas rules to compete internationally. All the players made sacrifices for the game, many of them sacrificing more than professional athletes for farrrr less of a payoff.
I've been listening to the sports podcast by the author for a while so it was fun to see a different side of his personality in how he wrote about this experience, which really changed his life. I loved the details he used to describe the emotions of the players and how their lives revolved around the game, and the very normal settings that became everything for these players. At times the book made me want to get really into scrabble, but it also pushed me away a little seeing how miserable some of the competitors were.
I've been listening to the sports podcast by the author for a while so it was fun to see a different side of his personality in how he wrote about this experience, which really changed his life. I loved the details he used to describe the emotions of the players and how their lives revolved around the game, and the very normal settings that became everything for these players. At times the book made me want to get really into scrabble, but it also pushed me away a little seeing how miserable some of the competitors were.
December 24, 2018
This book went on and on and on. I enjoyed the portions that covered the history of Scrabble and its ongoing evolution, some of the memoir portion, and occasionally the character studies. But when Fatsis word-geeked out and painstakingly detailed the play by play of all those tournaments, my eyes glazed over. It took me 8 months to finish this book! But I still enjoy the game and may make an effort to study some word lists.
June 14, 2021
The author, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, took a one-year leave of absence to delve into the world of competitive Scrabble. I truly enjoy playing Scrabble recreationally and found the strategies and personalities very interesting.
I'm pretty sure this book is of interest to a small audience. Published in ~2001, it probably was a given as a gift to a lot of people looking for something for that off-beat Scrabble player in their lives.
I'm pretty sure this book is of interest to a small audience. Published in ~2001, it probably was a given as a gift to a lot of people looking for something for that off-beat Scrabble player in their lives.
July 2, 2018
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!
(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!
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