As Stefan Fatsis, a 1985 College graduate and author of Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble Players, describes a particularly intense round of Scrabble, many in the audience nodded in understanding.
In fact, most of the 40 people who gathered to hear Fatsis speak last night at the Penn Bookstore are self-described Scrabble freaks, addicted to the intricate wordplay of the famous board game.
Fatsis came to Penn as the last stop on his soft cover book tour for Word Freak, reading passages and chatting with the crowd.
At every location, Scrabble afficionados and old friends of Fatsis from tournaments across the country have come to support him.
The Scrabble community "is just one of those things where you can find people everywhere you go," Fatsis said.
Last night's event was attended by a number of influential Scrabble figures, including Matt Hopkins, director of the Philadelphia chapter of the National Scrabble Association Club, and Jan Dixon, one of the highest ranked women Scrabble players in the world.
Dixon said she drove up from her home in Delaware to hear Fatsis speak.
"Stefan is adored and venerated," Hopkins said. "He has done more for the popularization of the game than anyone ever has."
Dixon also had nothing but kind words for Fatsis.
"I just loved the book," Dixon said. "I know every character, every reference. It is a very tight-knit little world, and he captured that."
Fatsis said that although he knew Word Freak would resonate with Scrabble devotees, he was unsure as to whether the book could reach a wider audience.
"For the culture, I knew that the book would matter," Fatsis said. "But the question was, could it cross over?"
Cross over it did. It has been featured on both The New York Times' and The Washington Post's bestseller lists. Recently, 8 Mile and L.A. Confidential Director Curtis Hanson bought the movie rights to Word Freak.
"I don't know what will come of it," Fatsis said. "But Hanson and I have met. We'll see."
In researching and writing the book, Fatsis, also a Daily Pennsylvanian alumnus, took more than a year and a half off from his job as a Wall Street Journal reporter.
Part narrative, part history lesson and part sociology textbook, Word Freak describes the unique subculture of Scrabble players.
"People who play this game seriously love nothing more than the camaraderie of like-minded people," Fatsis said.
For the gathered Scrabble obsessives, Fatsis' book encapsulates the gaming experience.
"He really has the talent to get to the kernel of what the game is about," Hopkins said. "And what the players are about."
Much of Fatsis' emphasis focused on the innate competitiveness of serious Scrabble players.
Scrabble "is about competition, drive and proving to yourself that you can be good at something," he said.
While many in the crowd had been playing competitively for at least a decade, some of Fatsis' fans were relative newcomers. Ilana Anmuth, a second grader at Vetner Elementary School and avid Scrabble Jr. fan, had Fatsis sign her copy of Word Freak.
"Look," Anmuth said to her nearby mother. "It says, 'No more Scrabble Jr.' Now I can play real Scrabble."
The question-and-answer session after the reading quickly became a time for competitive Scrabble players to swap tournament stories.
"Last time I played against Fatsis, I beat him by two points -- 402 to 400," said Joe Neff, an Engineering graduate who completed his Ph.D. in 1996.
Many stayed around afterwards to catch up with friends from distant cities. Then someone broke out a board, and a pair of the world's best Scrabble players sat down for an impromptu round.
