I just got done reading Word Freak, which covers the author’s journey into the word of competitive Scrabble play.

Along the way, he runs into strange and colorful characters, the kind of slightly-mad people you might expect - if you thought about what a competitive Scrabble player would be like. The author’s growing fascination with the game, the people and the lifestyle in general is fascinating and narrated in a compelling manner.

I liked the way these strange words were thrown out in the text, the way a computer geek might throw out hardware specs, where the word itself is not so much of interest, but more the way it could be used in that particular situation.

There was a time, before Word Freak, when I considered myself a pretty good Scrabble player. After reading it, I know I’m not; that’s actually sort of refreshing.