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Book Review, © Copyright 2001, Jim Loy
This is a story of big time tournament Scrabble®, its history, its controversies, its players (the amazing and the odd), its dictionaries, its words. And it is the story of the author, a reporter who decides to write a book about tournament Scrabble, only to become hooked. We experience the frustration of losing, of not knowing the words, of not seeing the words, of losing because of lack of confidence. We experience the joys of winning, of being in the zone, of doing everything right. We see World Champ Brian Cappelletto's opponent start the game with ENTASIS (using all 7 letters for a bingo), only to have Brian play REALISE, another bingo making eight words like this:
REALISE
ENTASIS
My spell checker doesn't like either of those legitimate words. And the words get even more bizarre. It is tempting to start listing bizarre words. But you can get that by thumbing through a Scrabble dictionary, or by reading this excellent book.
Also see National Scrabble® Association. Scrabble® is a product of Hasbro Inc. in the USA and Canada.
To order this book click Amazon.com (goes directly to this book).