Word Freak - Stefan Fatsis

⭐ 8.0/10

(Originally written by Magdalene)

Stefan is a journalist who decides to spend about three years diving into the world of competitive Scrabble playing. This book is about his journey to reaching the expert level in Scrabble, while he also talks about different aspects of Scrabble, like the history of the game and its rise in popularity. A big portion of the book is focused on several big names on the American Scrabble scene, and while Fatsis admits he tended to choose to write about some of the more interesting and colourful characters of Scrabble, he didn't have to try very hard to find interesting people. Scrabble people are WEIRD.

There are a few parts of the book I kind of skimmed when he was talking an aspect of the game or tournaments I wasn't interested in, but the world of Scrabble is a pretty fascinating place. I barely even play or care about Scrabble, but I am interested in obsessive and weird people who devote themselves to niche things, so overall I really enjoyed this deep dive into the very weird world of people obsessed with a board game. After reading it I immediately watched the documentary Word Wars, which is about the same people this book follows as they get ready for the Nationals, because I legitimately wanted to know how these guys were doing after the end of this book.