102 of 106 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Outdated and incomplete..., July 20, 2001
This 1991 volume is now old by 2 revisions of the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary. It was missing a few words even when it was current, and since the later revisions to OSPD, it is now short by several thousand words. My recollection is it also was not very sensibly arranged and was printed in difficult to read fonts. If you can read this review, you already have the ability to obtain word- study and list-generating software by download that is up-to-date, complete, more user friendly, and of greater utility, not to mention free, tho of course not as portable as this handy paperback.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
46 of 48 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Finally Updated! but 2 other books offer more to Scrabblers, January 26, 2009
This review is from: The Scrabble Word-Building Book: Updated Edition (Mass Market Paperback)
The word building book has finally been updated after 16 years. Meanwhile the official Scrabble dictionary has been updated twice. The new edition is worthwhile, especially with the 2 and 3 letter lists which are essential for playing Scrabble well.
Meanwhile,
SCRABBLE Wordbook and
Bob's Bible: Words, Anagrams and Hooks offer a lot more to the beginning, serious and expert players. The Wordbook has been a staple of Scrabble tournament players since the late 1980s. It's chockful of lists and ideas for studying. It's only two drawbacks are the tiny print (for some) and the removal of words like FATSO that are legal in tournaments (it's the school edition). The author does offer free bookmarks with the missing words.
Bob's Bible is my favorite tournament study book. The latest edition includes lists of the 2s, 3s, 4s and even 5s. The main section is a full (offical) list of 2-8 letter words. Next to each word are the front hooks and the back hooks to make words one letter longer... like STAMPED e (makes stampede!) Below each word are all the anagrams. So underneath SENATOR it lists atoners, santero and treason. There are even Jumble quizzes for thousands of words you need to know. The special Q-word section has words like QI QAT QANAT QABALAH TRANQ etc and also BUQSHA, OBLOQUY, EXEQUY and COLLOQUY (not to mention MBAQANGA).
The coolest 2 sections in the book are lists of all, and only, the words that have front hooks, and a section for back hooks that change the meaning of the word or are non-standard plurals like AE. These are alphabetically listed for each word length from 2 to 8.
By all means, get the Word-Building book, but get
Bob's Bible: Words, Anagrams and Hooks and
SCRABBLE Wordbook first!
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Scrabble Goes Educational, March 26, 2001
Scrabble has been an integral part of our family for over 50 years. The originators (Grandmother and her sisters) were highly competitive and were totally against the idea of looking up words prior to playing. But, in order to encourage the game with the fourth generation, the rules have been relaxed.As a result, this book is extremely helpful to teach adding on to words and multiple-word plays. While it just consists of alphabetized lists, we make it a rule that you also have to look up the meaning of the word in the Scrabble dictionary, if not known.But beware... while the book is fairly complete, there are some words that are not included which can be found in earlier editions of the Official Scrabble Dictionary.So, the recommendation is, this makes a fun and wonderful companion book, but should not be relied on alone.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
