Rating: 
Summary: Harder to put down than a "J" tile!
Review: I found Word Freak to be as much of a compulsion as the players featured in the book. Fatsis has an ability to keep his readers hooked into his growing fascination with Scrabble.
As one who has played Scrabble only at a few family get-togethers (and usually been crushed), I found myself too drawn in to this world of obsessed players. I almost felt let down when I completed this book. I am going to need to go out and get myself a Scrabble board today.
Rating:
Summary: Best book I've ever read on obsession
Review: I'm not a tournament Scrabble player, but I am a tournament chess player, and the personalities of Scrabble players seems to be quite a lot like those of chess players. This book does an excellent job of profiling the obsessive types who play these games and the marginal existence that many of them live in pursuing the non-renumerative art of these basically abstract games. I couldn't put this book down.
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Summary: The Son of a Bi??h# Can Write!
Review: A good friend and fellow living room-type player "forced" me to read this book. And am I glad she did. Scrabble aside, what I experienced was one fine (and funny) writer. Not crazy-funny like Barry or Hiaasen, but dry and subtle with a wonderful flowing style. Toss in introspective, analytical and honest and I believe I have a new "top ten" favorite author to add to my list. There is something inherently likable about Fatsis. I'd love to sit down one day and get demolished by him!
Rating:
Summary: In Search of 1700
Review: Word Freak, by Stefan Fatsis, is a fascinating story of staring into the abyss - of Scrabble.Fatsis begins his interest casually enough - he plays some pickup games in the Washington Square Park in New York, and covers a few tournaments. He, like most Scrabblers played casually - on a rainy Sunday, or during a sick day. That isn't the scene this book is about. Rather, Fatsis writes about the world of competitive scrabble, a pursuit inviting obsession and neurosis. He soon begins to realize, however, that this isn't enough. He begins to obsess, to want to know both the game and the people who populate its world in an intimate level. In order to begin his pursuit of greatness on the Scrabble scene, Fatsis begins memorizing word lists and practicing his anagramming skills. He talks to many of the top-twenty players, gaining expert advice and strategy sessions. Further, he researches the history and state of the game. Fatsis attends and plays in tournaments worldwide, all in search of the elusive 1700 rating, which divides the experts from those who merely play. Some of the most interesting sections are those where Fatsis interviews high-ranking Scrabble experts. These individiuals are as quirky as top-rated individuals at any endeavor - the pill-popping Matt; the tai-chi practicing Joe, and the Pan-Africanist Marlon will surely stay with the reader long after strategy highlights on the board. This book is a fascinating read for both casual and competitive lovers of Scrabble. It certainly draws one into the scene, and makes you feel at home, even with the "Word Freaks!"
Rating:
Summary: Gripping and compulsively readable
Review: The best non-fiction book I have read in many months. I don't play Scrabble -- I'm terrible at it -- but this book is so well-written and funny that if you have any interest in wordplay at all, or in merely being entertained, you should pick it up ASAP. I started reading it on vacation and laughed so much that my husbard started reading it whenever I put it down. Suffice to say we traded it back and forth and both devoured it in record time. Full of memorable portraits of the characters who populate the world of competitive Scrabble. A great Xmas present!
Rating: 
Summary: Not just for word freaks
Review: I don't play competitive scrabble. To be honest, I don't even like scrabble that much. But I just wanted to add the comments of a scrabble outsider. This is a compellingly good read. I stole moments away from my family to finish this book, staying up to 1:30 a.m. to knock off the last chapter, and I really enjoyed it. It's not the definitive work on obsessive genius, nor is it a perfect ethnographic look at a subculture, but following Fatsis' rise (decline?) into competitive scrabble, and his amusing, often biting, portrayals of its devotees kept me turning pages long into the night. This book isn't just for scrabble fans.
Rating:
Summary: From a chess-player: Read it!
Review: I have played tournament chess for about 15 years. This book has started me into the Scrabble world. It will not appeal to many, but the book should. It is a fascinating glimpse at a part of the world few ever see -- making it an excellent candidate for a good book. This book is good. Maybe not as good as "Into Thin Air" was for mountain climbing, but it comes close.
Rating:
Summary: A-word winning!
Review: This is a delightful and informative across-the-board look at the competitive world of Scrabble. As a once-avid Scrabble player myself, one who has played in tournaments (although at a low level), I enjoyed Fatsis' multi-level approach to this board game. One level, the one with tremendous personal insight and revelation, is his own personal leap into serious Scrabble and the goal of trying to become an expert--a task he discovers takes dedication as well as some innate abilities. Interspersed with those chapter on his personal growth as a Scrabble player, Fatsis delivers on another level: treating us to the history of Scrabble as a game, and a particularly interesting segment on the game's inventor, Alfred Butts, and background information on the companies who have owned it. In-depth peaks at several individual players bring us to a higher level, to some of the masters of the game: Joe Edley, Joel Sherman, Matt Graham, Brian Cappelletto, Lester Schonbrun, Marlon Hill, Joel Wapnick, Ron Tiekert, and others. Fatsis takes us into the psychology and physiology of the competitive Scrabble player and leads us to some fascinating findings. And on the highest level sits the world of competition at the local, regional, national, and world tournaments, and the personal camaraderie, weirdness and struggle to win at that level. In all, this book lives up to its title and gives us a very personal look at the heartbreak, triumphs, genius, and obsession in the world of competitive Scrabble players. And I thoroughly enjoyed that journey.
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Summary: Fatsis BINGOES!!!
Review: Absorbing. Weird. Obsessive, compulsive. Fascinating. I enjoyed it so much, I was sad for the book to end.
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Summary: Scrabble celebs
Review: I am purely a recreational Scrabble player but was fascinated to read about the tournament circuit and crazy characters who riddle the scene. I reside in NYC and can't wait to visit Washington Square Park to find the Scrabble celebs mentioned by Stefan throughout the book; I feel like I know Matt, Marlon, GI Joel, Joe et al. I might even ask for an autograph!
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