Review - Word Freak

Photo of cover. 10/16/26 dwm

 In August, I read my first Stefan Fatsis book, called A Few Seconds of Panic, which is the author's account of trying to become worthy of an NFL tryout to kick for the Denver Broncos.

 

 Fatsis, a Wall Street Journal reporter and writer for the New York Times wrote the book after his first bestseller which was his quest to become good enough at Scrabble to compete with the best in the world.

 

 Growing up, I played Scrabble with family and friends and I've occasionally played it as an adult. It can be fun and engaging, depending on the participants, but at this time in my life I am not usually looking to play board games.

 

 If I had been exposed to people who were as serious about the game as those in Fatsis' book, I might have developed the passion and devotion the writer describes, but I doubt it.

 

 It took awhile to read this book because there is a lot of strategy and the details of how players memorize words and try to recall them during a game, which frankly lost me. 

 

I stuck with the writer's trek from a regular person familiar with words into someone who studies for hours learning all five-letter words with various letter combinations. His quest, as an amateur, was to boost his game scores above 1,600 with eyes on reading 1,700 which qualifies players as an expert. 

 

Fatsis started unrated but climbed into the low 1,000s on talent alone - it took three years of intensive study, tile-tracking, and competitive play to reach 1,735.

 

That's a remarkable achievement, only topped by reaching the New York Times Bestseller list with a book about playing competitive Scrabble. You might want to give it a shot.

 

----------------------------------- 

It's 10/29/2026 when this blog is published which also happens to be my sister's birthday, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!