Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble

For many Scrabble is merely a board game, for others it is an intellectual pilgrimage. In this book, Stefan Fatsis, journalist and self-confessed word freak, goes in search of the people for whom Scrabble is life and affords us a glimpse into the extraordinary world of the brilliant geeks and misfit savants who populate the highest ranks of the game, playing competitively in tournaments across the world, Fatsis chronicles the story of how Scrabble has grown from a diversion invented by an unemployed architect during the great depression into the hugely successful, challenging and beloved game of today. More than just a book about hardcore Scrabble, Word Freak is also an examination of notions of brilliance, memory, language, competition, and, huge lists of words with no meaning at all.