Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble Players
Stefan Fatsis set out to write a magazine story about the Scrabble world and ended up spending years grinding his way from club player to expert. He introduces the eccentric top ranked players, from the reclusive Joe Edley to the meticulously prepared Joel Sherman, and shows how memorization, probability, and psychology combine at the highest level. Fatsis makes room for the emotional lives of the players, including their struggles with mental illness, poverty, and obsession, without ever making them seem like specimens. His own quest to earn an expert rating gives the book its narrative spine. It is a warm, funny, and unexpectedly moving portrait of a hidden subculture.
What you might want to know about Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble Players
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
A Wall Street Journal reporter climbs into the strange, brilliant world of competitive Scrabble.
Simmons has cited Word Freak on The Ringer as one of the great participatory journalism books, praising Fatsis for making Scrabble feel as competitive and human as any pro sport.
No. Casual players and non players alike get pulled in by the characters and the reporting on obsession.
Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble Players was written by Stefan Fatsis, published in 2001 by Penguin Books.
Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble Players is 384 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble Players takes most readers 6 to 8 hours to finish.
Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble Players is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
