Derryn Hinch

I picked this up at a relative's, and since she wasn't going to read it, she said I could keep it :-) It's basically a book of Scrabble strategy, starting with the rules of the game (which I skipped), then going on to explain such techniques as rack balancing (trying to ensure vowels and consonants are roughly equal), when to exchange tiles, how to use the blank, and so on.

I had already worked out some of the suggested strategies for myself - such as not opening up triple word scores, and show more playing the high-scoring letters on bonus tiles wherever possible - but found it a very interesting read, nonetheless.

I don't play championship Scrabble, and probably never will; I'm not competitive enough, nor do I think fast enough. But I do play sometimes in real life, and frequently on Facebook, and have learned in the past year just how important it is, not just to find good words but to use good placement. Often a shorter word with high letters, well-placed, can score considerably more than a longer word.

No longer in print - there are no doubt other books of this type, and many web pages devoted to the topic of Scrabble strategy - but I enjoyed reading it, and will probably refer to it again. show less