Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Simon & Schuster (2005), Paperback, 400 pages
Description
"Part memoir and part education (or lack thereof), The Know-It-All chronicles NPR contributor A.J. Jacobs's hilarious, enlightening, and seemingly impossible quest to read the Encyclopaedia Britannica from A to Z. To fill the ever-widening gaps in his Ivy League education, A.J. Jacobs sets for himself the daunting task of reading all thirty-two volumes of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. His wife, Julie, tells him it's a waste of time, his friends believe he is losing his mind, and his father, a brilliant attorney who had once attempted the same feat and quit somewhere around Borneo, is encouraging but, shall we say, unconvinced. With self-deprecating wit and a disarming frankness, The Know-It-All recounts the unexpected and comically disruptive effects Operation Encyclopedia has on every part of Jacobs's life -- from his newly minted marriage to his complicated relationship with his father and the rest of his charmingly eccentric New York family to his day job as an editor at Esquire. Jacobs's project tests the outer limits of his stamina and forces him to explore the real meaning of intelligence as he endeavors to join Mensa, win a spot on Jeopardy!, and absorb 33,000 pages of learning. On his journey he stumbles upon some of the strangest, funniest, and most profound facts about every topic under the sun, all while battling fatigue, ridicule, and the paralyzing fear that attends his first real-life responsibility -- the impending birth of his first child. The Know-It-All is an ingenious, mightily entertaining memoir of one man's intellect, neuroses, and obsessions and a soul-searching, ultimately touching struggle between the all-consuming quest for factual knowledge and the undeniable gift of hard-won wisdom"--Book description.… (more)
Media reviews
Corny, juvenile, smug, tired. Jacobs -- a poor man's Dave Barry; no, a bag person's Dave Barry -- has a modus operandi: to drift through the encyclopedia he supposedly read, yank out an entry, tear open his Industrial-Strength Comedy Handbook and jerry-build a lame wisecrack.
User reviews
LibraryThing member brendajanefrank
Arnold Jacobs, Jr. chronicles his quest to be the “Smartest Person in the World” by reading every word of all 32 volumes of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, with a smattering of autobiographical information to spice it up. For instance, we learn that Arnold Jacobs, Sr., author of 24 legal books,
A.J.’s quest to be the “Smartest Person in the World” included becoming a member of the elite organization, Mensa (although A.J. was accepted on the strength of his old SAT scores, having failed the actual Mensa test). This entitled him to receive the Mensa Bulletin, which has announcements for Mensa’s special interest groups, like M-Prisoned, for Mensans who are incarcerated. A.J. particularly enjoyed finding typos in the Mensa Bulletin, which gave him a “special immature thrill.”
The Encyclopaedia project allowed A.J. to interject new knowledge into daily conversation. For example, he and Julie, his wife, visited friends for a summer barbecue and some quodlibet (free-ranging conversation on a topic of choice, as in “Louis IX allowed his courtiers to engage in quodlibet after meals”). Friends and family of A.J. did not find this practice endearing. In fact, Julie started fining A.J. for every spontaneous fact that was not directly relevant, such as, “Did you know that René Descartes has a fetish for women with crossed eyes?”
A.J. does point out some very significant historical facts unfamiliar to many people, including the Taiping Rebellion and the Tunguska event. The Taiping Rebellion occurred in south and central China from 1850 to 1865. The import of this rebellion is that it resulted in about 20 million military and civilian deaths! In comparison, our own bloody Civil War took less than 700,000 lives.
The Tunguska event was a massive aerial explosion in central Siberia in 1908 that flattened more than 80 million trees over approximately 830 sq. miles. The energy of the explosion was equivalent to that of 10-15 megatons of TNT. Although the cause of the blast is still unclear, it was likely the result of either a large meteoroid or comet fragment exploding 3-6 miles above the earth.
I can’t say that I felt saddened when A.J. finished reading the last entry of the last volume, “Zywiec,” as I did when I read the last paragraph of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," but the Encyclopaedia project was interesting, educational, and, sometimes, laugh-out-loud funny. I also remain solidly in the observer status of this quest, with not even a hint of desire to read the entire Britannica, or any other encyclopedia.
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is the holder of the world’s records for the most footnotes in a legal article, with 4,824 footnotes in one published article. Arnold Jr., who goes by “A.J.,” also has literary talent, being an editor for Esquire magazine.A.J.’s quest to be the “Smartest Person in the World” included becoming a member of the elite organization, Mensa (although A.J. was accepted on the strength of his old SAT scores, having failed the actual Mensa test). This entitled him to receive the Mensa Bulletin, which has announcements for Mensa’s special interest groups, like M-Prisoned, for Mensans who are incarcerated. A.J. particularly enjoyed finding typos in the Mensa Bulletin, which gave him a “special immature thrill.”
The Encyclopaedia project allowed A.J. to interject new knowledge into daily conversation. For example, he and Julie, his wife, visited friends for a summer barbecue and some quodlibet (free-ranging conversation on a topic of choice, as in “Louis IX allowed his courtiers to engage in quodlibet after meals”). Friends and family of A.J. did not find this practice endearing. In fact, Julie started fining A.J. for every spontaneous fact that was not directly relevant, such as, “Did you know that René Descartes has a fetish for women with crossed eyes?”
A.J. does point out some very significant historical facts unfamiliar to many people, including the Taiping Rebellion and the Tunguska event. The Taiping Rebellion occurred in south and central China from 1850 to 1865. The import of this rebellion is that it resulted in about 20 million military and civilian deaths! In comparison, our own bloody Civil War took less than 700,000 lives.
The Tunguska event was a massive aerial explosion in central Siberia in 1908 that flattened more than 80 million trees over approximately 830 sq. miles. The energy of the explosion was equivalent to that of 10-15 megatons of TNT. Although the cause of the blast is still unclear, it was likely the result of either a large meteoroid or comet fragment exploding 3-6 miles above the earth.
I can’t say that I felt saddened when A.J. finished reading the last entry of the last volume, “Zywiec,” as I did when I read the last paragraph of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," but the Encyclopaedia project was interesting, educational, and, sometimes, laugh-out-loud funny. I also remain solidly in the observer status of this quest, with not even a hint of desire to read the entire Britannica, or any other encyclopedia.
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LibraryThing member beelzebubba
The Know-It-All is a wonderful book that charts the progress through the author's life one year of reading the entire Encyclopedia Britannica set. Aside from imparting some of the knowledge he is picking up from the books, he lets us into his life as well (a lot happens as he works his way through
A couple of years ago, my wife talked me into giving away my set of the Encyclopedia Britannica. I really hadn't touched them since high school, but did have an emotional attachment to them. My parents bought them for me when I was a kid, to help me out in school. That was when EB had door to door salesmen peddling them. I guess they represented my parents' support for me, their willingness to do whatever it took to help me out, because the set wasn't cheap. And we weren't rich.
I actually had the idea of reading the whole set at one time. I think I must've gotten the idea from the movie, Dr. No, when the character of Honey Rider, played by Ursula Andress, told Bond that she had started reading the encyclopedia from A-Z when she was 8. But of course, I never did. There aren't too many goals in my life that I have actually followed through on, so no surprise here. But reading this book makes me wish I had.
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the alphabet.) His sense of humor is self-effacing and infectious. I haven't laughed so much in a while (I need to get out more, apparently.) A couple of years ago, my wife talked me into giving away my set of the Encyclopedia Britannica. I really hadn't touched them since high school, but did have an emotional attachment to them. My parents bought them for me when I was a kid, to help me out in school. That was when EB had door to door salesmen peddling them. I guess they represented my parents' support for me, their willingness to do whatever it took to help me out, because the set wasn't cheap. And we weren't rich.
I actually had the idea of reading the whole set at one time. I think I must've gotten the idea from the movie, Dr. No, when the character of Honey Rider, played by Ursula Andress, told Bond that she had started reading the encyclopedia from A-Z when she was 8. But of course, I never did. There aren't too many goals in my life that I have actually followed through on, so no surprise here. But reading this book makes me wish I had.
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LibraryThing member mjgrogan
As is apparently my custom, I failed to look at what format this book takes before checking it out from the local library (I was actually searching out his newer book about living “Biblically” but, as usual, this was unavailable). Essentially this is an Autobiography-by-Alphabet. His quest to
As silly as it seems to read a person reading the Encyclopaedia Britannica, it sure beats reading some dude reading Derrida, which I occasionally get tricked into doing. I found much of it very entertaining. In my first sitting with this, I read his snarky quote regarding Keanu Reeve’s [lack of] acting ability. I had emailed a similar K.R. slam to a friend not two hours earlier and I haven’t even seen a movie starring that jack ass in a decade! I knew I’d like this book.
Additionally, I can relate to his quest of filling in the innumerable gaps within his knowledge/information database (assuming this was not simply an angle to get a book published). In contrast to his pockmarked intellectual landscape, my knowledge topography is something more akin to a mountain (or at least a sizable hill) of mostly boring architecture crap immediately bordering a Grand Canyon devoid of every other worldly thing that any given person would want to discuss over cocktails. So I’ve finally established a system of forgoing yet another Vidler book attempting to explain how modern architecture relates to inexplicable French theories to instead shovel books on Taxes, Baseball, Charles Lindberg, Neuroscience, Witch Hunts, and, of course, some guy reading EB into my prodigious mental abyss.
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read all 33,000 pages is presented to the reader through the structure of listing selected entries – A through Z. Within these entries he either regurgitates interesting factoids and/or he wanders off into the realm of “a day in the life” where he’s attempting to impregnate his wife, or chronically feeling intellectual envy towards his father, brother-in-law, etc. He also establishes assignments in conjunction with his quest. He competes with the Columbia debate team, has a one-on-one with a Rabbi, gets on Who Wants to be a Millionaire?. It’s all very SUPER SIZE ME (which, I suppose, was being produced around the same time). As silly as it seems to read a person reading the Encyclopaedia Britannica, it sure beats reading some dude reading Derrida, which I occasionally get tricked into doing. I found much of it very entertaining. In my first sitting with this, I read his snarky quote regarding Keanu Reeve’s [lack of] acting ability. I had emailed a similar K.R. slam to a friend not two hours earlier and I haven’t even seen a movie starring that jack ass in a decade! I knew I’d like this book.
Additionally, I can relate to his quest of filling in the innumerable gaps within his knowledge/information database (assuming this was not simply an angle to get a book published). In contrast to his pockmarked intellectual landscape, my knowledge topography is something more akin to a mountain (or at least a sizable hill) of mostly boring architecture crap immediately bordering a Grand Canyon devoid of every other worldly thing that any given person would want to discuss over cocktails. So I’ve finally established a system of forgoing yet another Vidler book attempting to explain how modern architecture relates to inexplicable French theories to instead shovel books on Taxes, Baseball, Charles Lindberg, Neuroscience, Witch Hunts, and, of course, some guy reading EB into my prodigious mental abyss.
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LibraryThing member woodsathome
I was probably six the first time I decided to read the encyclopedia, I made it maybe 10 pages into A. Through the years I decided to read it (the dictionary or the Bible) many more times with just about the same success.
When I saw the premise of Know-It-All I knew this book was for me, and it
The author juxtaposes amusing entries from the encyclopedia with anecdotes from his personal life during this intense encyclopedia reading year. Laugh out loud funny in parts I highly recommend it to all the book nerds out there who ever wanted to, but didn't read the encyclopedia.
When I saw the premise of Know-It-All I knew this book was for me, and it
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didn't disappoint.The author juxtaposes amusing entries from the encyclopedia with anecdotes from his personal life during this intense encyclopedia reading year. Laugh out loud funny in parts I highly recommend it to all the book nerds out there who ever wanted to, but didn't read the encyclopedia.
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LibraryThing member reannon
I enjoyed reading Jacob's The Year of Living Biblically so much that I got this book, and I'm glad I did. Jacobs is an honest and amused viewer of his own life and character. He is a bit obsessive-compulsive, and that, really, makes possible what he does in these two books. In The Year of Living
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Biblically, he spent a year following all the rules set out in the Bible. In this earlier book, he decides to read the Encyclopedia Britannica from A-Z. He's honest in saying that at one point in his childhood he believed himself the smartest boy in the world, and that one reason for reading the EB was to recapture that feeling. In the book he talks about his quest, discusses the history of Britannica and encyclopedias in general. He talks about many of the interesting facts he discovers and various pursuits he undertakes to prove his intelligence, including joining Mensa, interviewing a scientist about intelligence, being a contestant on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, etc. It makes for a fun book, and he gets rather profound about the relationships of knowledge, intelligence, and wisdom. Show Less
LibraryThing member phyllis01
A screamingly funny observance of an obsession. Jacobs sets out to read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica from beginning to end. If you enjoy good writing, or are one of those people who goes to the dictionary to look up a word and finds yourself, thirty minutes later, reading the dictionary, this
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is a book for you. Show Less
LibraryThing member varielle
Having tried to read a 1957 set of Funk & Wagnall's at the age of 8 and a 1970 set of World Book Encyclopedias at the age of 10, I can understand the mindset of someone attempting to tackle the all encompassing Britannica. In my own case I don't seem to have made it past the Ds and consequently
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retain a lot of disjointed information about dogs and the goddess Diana, so I have to respect Mr. Jacob's effort to slog through from A-Z in the course of a year. He is an editor for Esquire magazine and brings a pop culture sensibility to his observations. The serendipity of the intersection of his real life as it meshes with his reading takes interesting and thought provoking turns as he humorously reflects on human nature, learning and he and his wife's pursuit of parenthood. Though not for everyone, The Know-it-All is a fun and enlightening read. Show Less
LibraryThing member reenum
Jacobs' tone gets whiny from time to time, but his neuroses and the constant asides into his and his wife's attempts to have a child make it a fun read.
LibraryThing member ijustgetbored
Jacobs' book chronicles his successful bid to read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica. The book is organized alphabetically (gee, like an encyclopedia!) with entries of note spotlighted; these entries may be picked out for their general interest-value or for their relevance to Jacobs' life as he
Each entry is like a little distilled essay or meditation, encapsulating facts and storyline. I would say that the book definitely has a "plot," which you might not really expect when you see the format of emboldened words followed by text. You get caught up in Jacobs' quest, in large part because his enthuasiasm is so infectious. And let's face it, most of us are only going to read the encyclopedia vicariously, so what better way to do it than to pick up this humorous, tongue-in-cheek volume?
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writes the book. This is not just a book about reading the encyclopedia; it's a chronicle of what it's like to undertake such an effort (to try to wedge facts from such reading into everyday conversation without sounding completely unhinged, to forays into Mensa, to entries on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?) alongside the story of his and his wife's ongoing efforts at conceiving a child.Each entry is like a little distilled essay or meditation, encapsulating facts and storyline. I would say that the book definitely has a "plot," which you might not really expect when you see the format of emboldened words followed by text. You get caught up in Jacobs' quest, in large part because his enthuasiasm is so infectious. And let's face it, most of us are only going to read the encyclopedia vicariously, so what better way to do it than to pick up this humorous, tongue-in-cheek volume?
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LibraryThing member katiecva
I liked this book. When I started it, I thought I was really going to like it a lot. The writer is amusing and he picks some whacky stuff out of the encyclopedia that made me laugh out loud at times. I liked the interaction with his family and friends at the beginning, but it started to weigh on me
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after a while as those passages seemed to get longer and longer. I picked up the next book of his, so I'm interested to see if the style is the same. Would recommend it, but you might find yourself fast-forwarding in parts like I did. Show Less
LibraryThing member graspingforthewind
This book is a journey of self-discovery, of learning both who he is, what he can do, and what he values most in his life. At times he is sappy and silly, at others a soul-searcher and philosophical wanderer, but always he is witty.
I enjoyed the book because I felt deep connections to his love of
Full Review at Grasping for the Wind
I enjoyed the book because I felt deep connections to his love of
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knowledge and search for wisdom. I would recommend this to anyone who thirsts after knowledge.Full Review at Grasping for the Wind
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LibraryThing member Maggie_Rum
Much like his book, The Year of Living Biblically, Jacobs manages to open your eyes to things you just plain don't KNOW, all while making you laugh. One would think that a man reading the entire encyclopedia wouldn't make for any sort of good read. But in between the random facts on planets,
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playwrights and plants, Jacobs honestly and humorously describes his life as a writer, future father, and son to a man who may, in fact, be the smartest man in the world. Show Less
LibraryThing member Harmless_Dilettante
It's charming, witty, and crammed with fun-filled factoids. I'd like to take a moment to personally thank Mr. Jacobs for reading the entire Britannica oeuvre, so I won't have to.
LibraryThing member ronda73ca
Very cool book! This guy has a pretty witty way of telling is odd little story, and you actually learn somethings along the way. The only thing that sucks is that it makes you want to learn more about the little snippets he writes about and I have to force myself not to put down the book and get
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knee deep into googling. Show Less
LibraryThing member meags222
I really enjoy Jacobs' writing style. He is quite humorous and I really enjoyed the way he blended his stories with some of the information he has learned while reading the encyclopedia. I give this book 4 stars out of 5
LibraryThing member breakerfallen
A good coming-of-age type memoir by the post-adolescent. The author develops a personal story of development through his coverage of Britannica entries as he reads them through the course of a year. At times, I was more interested in the Britannica entries than his family stories, though I can't
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say that's a bad thing. Show Less
LibraryThing member mochap
couldn't get through it--got as far as the Hs and had to call it a day. A young man's quest to know "everything" in the Encyclopedia Britannica can only hold one's attention for so long--in this case, to the letter H.
LibraryThing member Czarblaximus
Excellent read, for those in search of more than just common knowledge. It will help you throw away your accepted notion of ignorance in certain area of your life and therefore you shall thirst to be a more well rounded individual.
LibraryThing member Alliebadger
Jacobs makes the encyclopedia fun. I thoroughly enjoyed his quest from a-ak to zywiek and felt I was making the journey along the way with him (when someone asked how far he was and he said he was in the C's, I couldn't help but think "Me too!"). His sense of humor and his self-referential
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tendencies give you a sense of fun and excitement as he reads, tries to find his place in the intelligence world, and prepares for the coming of his first child. A great read. Show Less
LibraryThing member kaelirenee
Try and learn everything in the world, and you might learn something more about yourself...
Jacobs manages to do something that most of us couldn't even begin to start on-reading the Encyclopedia Britannica. And even more amazingly, he made the experiance interesting. You get a good look at his
Jacobs manages to do something that most of us couldn't even begin to start on-reading the Encyclopedia Britannica. And even more amazingly, he made the experiance interesting. You get a good look at his
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nerotic nature, his relationship with friends and family, and struggles with his wife. He ties in the lessons he's learned from the minuta in the encyclopedias to his own life. Good for a light read. It even had me thinking, gee why don't I try this. And then I came to my senses. Show Less
LibraryThing member jtho
I really enjoyed this book. AJ sets out to read the entire encyclopedia, and in the process we learn a lot about his life, and about everything. The book is broken down into alphabetical chapters, and AJ shares the most interesting points from each letter of the book. In addition, certain words
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start off as a summary of that topic, but then go off on a tangent about his own life. Through these tangents, we learn about his job, marriage, and family. I found the balance between interesting facts and personal life about right, and enjoyed the facts that AJ pulled out, as well as how he tied them together (people who died the same way, obsessions with cross-eyed people, etc.). A good read! Show Less
LibraryThing member Brandie
I really liked this book! Entertaining and informative all at once. I may have to read more by Mr. Jacobs!
LibraryThing member cybergal17
Hilarious account at author's attempt to be the smartest man in the world, like he believed he was when he was a kid.
LibraryThing member agnesjerwilliker
The perfect metro read. Pick it up at any letter, laugh aloud, wince as everyone turns to stare at you you, and repeat on the commute home. I thank AJ Jacobs for humourously revealing the torturous process of reading every volume of the encyclopedia, but I have no desire to follow suit.
LibraryThing member TanyaTomato
Funny and fact filled. AJ decides to read the Encyclopedia Britannica from A to Z. It is a story of him while doing it not just rote information. He is entertaining and it's a good book.
Subjects
Language
Original publication date
2004-09-21
Physical description
400 p.; 5.2 inches
ISBN
0743250621 / 9780743250627