Word Freak
by Stefan Fatsis
One of my husband's family's Thanksgiving traditions, after the obligatory gorging, is to clear off a table and start a Scrabble game.
I can hold my own, but I'm seldom the grand winner. Maybe someday I'll remember to look up some more words that use the letters J,Q, and X so I don't get stuck with them at the end.
Imagine my surprise a few years ago when I came across the book "Word Freak." The tag line on the cover reads "Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble Players."
"Competitive Scrabble?!" I said to myself. I picked up the book and paged through it, and before long I knew I had to read this.
There's a whole Scrabble subculture out there -- people who obsessively play the game and memorize wordlists, traveling around the country to compete in tournaments.
Fatsis begins his journey through the Scrabble world as an unranked amateur, but joins in tournaments as part of his "research."
If you're the type who can create words like "DYSTOCIA" and "KNURS" on the board, this books is for you. (And if you're curious "Dystocia" means "difficult or abnormally painful childbirth, and "Knurs" is a "knot on the trunk of a tree."
Find this book on the 2nd floor, 793.734 FAT.
c Waterloo Public Library 2007
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