''Word Freak'' is a

non-fiction Nonfiction, or non-fiction, is any document or media content that attempts, in good faith, to provide information (and sometimes opinions) grounded only in facts and real life, rather than in imagination. Nonfiction is often associated with b ...

narrative by Stefan Fatsis published in 2001 (). The book is subtitled ''Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive SCRABBLE Players''. Fatsis, a sports reporter for ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'', introduces the reader to the world of competitive

Scrabble ''Scrabble'' is a word game in which two to four players score points by placing tiles, each bearing a single letter, onto a game board divided into a 15×15 grid of squares. The tiles must form words that, in crossword fashion, read left t ...

through a narrative of his slow transformation from "a good living room player" into a player ranked as expert by the

National Scrabble Association The National Scrabble Association (NSA) was created in 1978 by Selchow & Righter, then the makers of Scrabble, to promote their game. It coordinated local clubs and Scrabble tournaments in North America, including the National Scrabble Championship, ...

. Fatsis's humorous approach and descriptions of fellow competitive Scrabble players are interspersed with game strategies as the reader follows his ascent through the ranks of tournament players. The book also covers the history of the game, how tournaments are run, and the background politics of the Scrabble scene. ''Word Freak'' is a ''New York Times'' Bestseller and ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' Notable Book. A 10th anniversary paperback edition of Word Freak came out in August 2011. The new edition (18th printing) includes a new 30-page afterword about what's happened to the game in the last decade: where-are-they-now on the main characters, here-they-are-now on the new generation of players, corporate politics, dictionary changes, and much more. The new edition has the same ISBN number as the original, but is distinguished by a "10th Anniversary Edition" logo on the lower right of the front cover. The

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

'' Word Wars'' (2004), while not directly related to the book, includes many of the same players.

References

2001 non-fiction books Popular culture books Works about Scrabble Books about games {{game-book-stub