Word Freak: A Journey Into the Eccentric World of the Most Obsessive Board Game Ever Invented

(Paperback)

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Description

For many, Scrabble(R) is merely a board game, for others it is an intellectual pilgrimage. In Word Freak Stefan Fatsis charts the history and theory of the game alongside his own rise from living-room player to competitive shark, and affords us a glimpse into the extraordinary world of the brilliant geeks and misfit savants who populate the highest ranks of the game. In an effort to understand the depth of obsession plumbed by the players, Fatsis meets experts in memory, language and mathematics as well as those players who form Scrabble's darker underworld. Witty and profound, Word Freak is about sports and competition, the human mind and its interior workings, drive, desire and loneliness. And huge lists of words with no meaning at all.

Reviews

This book has come close to ruining my life... Within two pages I was hooked. This is an enthralling and wonderfully written elegy * Daily Telegraph *
A remarkable book * Independent *
A quirky account of a very peculiar practice * Herald *
A very funny book -- Lynn Barber
An amiable memoir of self-inflicted obsession * Times Literary Supplement *

Author Bio

Stefan Fatsis covers the business of sport for The Wall Street Journal. He lives in Brooklyn, New York and is very good at Scrabble.