Paperback, 389 pages
Published March 26, 2005 by Simon & Schuster.
This was fun. It's light, and humorous, and full of mostly irrelevant facts of the sort I tend to enjoy accumulating anyway. It was a good between-books book.
A.J. Jacobs has noticed an ever widening gap left from graduating from an Ivy League education. His solution, to read the entire Encyclopaedia Britannica, from A to Z. Follow A.J. as he works his way through all 32 volumes, that’s 33 thousand pages and 44 million words. His wife thinks it’s a waste of time, his friends believe he has lost his mind, but follow this unconventional task in this memoir.
I have read an A.J. Jacobs memoir before; I read “Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible” and found it really entertaining. This task sounded really interesting, I’m interested in the things people do to increase their pretentious levels. I’m not sure I will ever take up a task like reading the Encyclopaedia, especially with easy to access to Wikipedia.
Knowledge has interested me, and the way to obtain more …
A.J. Jacobs has noticed an ever widening gap left from graduating from an Ivy League education. His solution, to read the entire Encyclopaedia Britannica, from A to Z. Follow A.J. as he works his way through all 32 volumes, that’s 33 thousand pages and 44 million words. His wife thinks it’s a waste of time, his friends believe he has lost his mind, but follow this unconventional task in this memoir.
I have read an A.J. Jacobs memoir before; I read “Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible” and found it really entertaining. This task sounded really interesting, I’m interested in the things people do to increase their pretentious levels. I’m not sure I will ever take up a task like reading the Encyclopaedia, especially with easy to access to Wikipedia.
Knowledge has interested me, and the way to obtain more knowledge is fascinating. The full title of this book is The Know-It-All: One Man’s Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World; A.J. Jacobs documents the journey in this hilarious memoir. Not only do you get little snippets of facts that he found interesting but you get a look at his life. I really enjoyed the social impact reading the Encyclopaedia had; you watch his pretentious levels rise but you also watch his social skills fall. Obviously people don’t like being corrected, or want to hear weird related facts but I can’t help thinking that I would do the same thing as well.
A.J. Jacobs is quite a character and reading about the ways he tries to put his newfound knowledge into practise was really interesting. From going to a chess club, a crossword tournament and Who Wants To Be a Millionaire, Jacobs tries all sorts of ways to practise often with hilarious effects. Why take the test to join Mensa if you are already in Mensa; why not? Although A.J. Jacobs was entertaining, I really found his dad so much more interesting; he was fascinating.
I love books about books and humorous memoirs about learning, so this was right up my alley. A.J. Jacobs got the balance between trivia and real life. Following Jacobs and his wife as they try to get pregnant and I felt relief when they finally conceived. I’m curious if there are more entertaining memoirs like this worth reading, maybe a year reading classics or just novels, something similar. I think I need to read more books like this.
This review originally appeared on my blog; literary-exploration.com/2013/11/27/book-review-the-know-it-all/
A hilarious and revealing look into A.J. Jacob's life and attempt to become the smartest person in the world. In his journey through the encyclopedia from A-Z, he weaves a touching, self-deprecating, and enjoyable story of his family, friends, acquaintances, and coworkers during his quest for knowledge. Alongside his tale, he weaves a continual questioning of the nature of knowledge, and the attainment thereof. A fantastic sense of humor and an overarching theme are the glue that turns these small, reading-friendly sections into a captivating, entertaining book as a whole. It's a great noncommittal read - you can read a few sections on the bus to work - but comes together into a touching and thought-provoking narrative.
A hilarious and revealing look into A.J. Jacob's life and attempt to become the smartest person in the world. In his journey through the encyclopedia from A-Z, he weaves a touching, self-deprecating, and enjoyable story of his family, friends, acquaintances, and coworkers during his quest for knowledge. Alongside his tale, he weaves a continual questioning of the nature of knowledge, and the attainment thereof. A fantastic sense of humor and an overarching theme are the glue that turns these small, reading-friendly sections into a captivating, entertaining book as a whole. It's a great noncommittal read - you can read a few sections on the bus to work - but comes together into a touching and thought-provoking narrative.
A hilarious and revealing look into A.J. Jacob's life and attempt to become the smartest person in the world. In his journey through the encyclopedia from A-Z, he weaves a touching, self-deprecating, and enjoyable story of his family, friends, acquaintances, and coworkers during his quest for knowledge. Alongside his tale, he weaves a continual questioning of the nature of knowledge, and the attainment thereof. A fantastic sense of humor and an overarching theme are the glue that turns these small, reading-friendly sections into a captivating, entertaining book as a whole. It's a great noncommittal read - you can read a few sections on the bus to work - but comes together into a touching and thought-provoking narrative.
