Word Freak

I picked this book up at a Salvation Army in St. Paul. I love Scrabble and all derivations of Scrabble. Speed Scrabble. Double Scrabble. Travel Scrabble.

My extended family is obsessed with Boggle, which is a worthwhile pursuit, but never captured my attention quite like Scrabble did.

The beauty of Scrabble is that it mixes chance with skill. A bad player can beat a good player, and a good player can beat a bad player.

The book is about the fascinating world of Scrabble enthusiasts. These people spend thousands of hours studying word lists. They compete in tournaments. They win money for being good at Scrabble. They anagram for fun. They have official Scrabble ratings.

There is so much strategy in Scrabble. Much of it focuses around "bingoes", or playing all the tiles in your rack at once. Rack management is a big deal. So is tile counting.

One of the biggest Scrabble tournaments in the US is held in Waltham, MA, only 20 minutes from my house. I looked up the schedule online and it's the third weekend in April. I'm definitely going.