A. J. Jacobs (1) (1968–)

Author of The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World

For other authors named A. J. Jacobs, see the disambiguation page.

15+ Works 12,672 Members 506 Reviews 2 Favorited

About the Author

A.J. Jacobs is an editor at Esquire magazine and the author of The New York Times bestsellers The Year of Living Biblically, My Life as an Experiment, and The Know-It-All.

Image credit: Photo by William Pelkey

Works by A. J. Jacobs

The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible (2007) 4,672 copies

The Guinea Pig Diaries: My Life as an Experiment (2010) 1,018 copies

Drop Dead Healthy: One Man's Humble Quest for Bodily Perfection (2012) 782 copies

It's All Relative: Adventures Up and Down the World’s Family Tree (2017) 436 copies

Fractured Fairy Tales (1997) 367 copies

The Puzzler: One Man's Quest to Solve the Most Baffling Puzzles Ever, from Crosswords to Jigsaws to the Meaning of Life (2022) 216 copies

Thanks A Thousand: A Gratitude Journey (TED Books) (2018) 140 copies

What It Feels Like (2003) — Editor — 103 copies

The Two Kings: Jesus & Elvis (1994) 19 copies

America Off-Line: The Complete Outernet Starter Kit (1996) 8 copies

The Year of Living Constitutionally: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Constitution's Original Meaning (2024) 8 copies

A.J. Jacobs Omnibus: The Know-It-All, The Year of Living Biblically, My Life as an Experiment (2011) 6 copies

42 RULES FOR MODERN LIFE: AN INSIDER'S GUIDE TO NAVIGATING LIFE'S OBSTACLES (2019) 3 copies

I Think You're Fat 1 copy

Work Explorer

Associated Works

Things I've Learned From Women Who've Dumped Me (2008) — Contributor — 361 copies

The Year of Living like Jesus: My Journey of Discovering What Jesus Would Really Do (2009) — Foreword — 154 copies

My Jewish Year: 18 Holidays, One Wondering Jew (2017) — Foreword — 115 copies

Drivel: Deliciously Bad Writing by Your Favorite Authors (2014) — Contributor — 28 copies

The Right Way: Guidelines for Best Behaviour (2006) — Introduction — 13 copies

Tagged

2008 (46) A.J. Jacobs (42) American (36) audiobook (46) autobiography (157) Bible (227) biography (184) biography-memoir (60) books (44) books about books (94) Christian living (41) Christianity (142) ebook (61) education (42) encyclopedia (159) Encyclopedia Britannica (88) essays (74) experiments (40) fiction (57) genealogy (55) goodreads (42) health (112) humor (1,013) Judaism (141) Kindle (44) knowledge (100) learning (38) library (35) memoir (858) non-fiction (1,450) own (56) read (157) read in 2008 (36) reading (65) reference (83) religion (492) spirituality (48) to-read (615) trivia (100) unread (63)

Common Knowledge

Canonical name: Jacobs, A. J.
Legal name: Jacobs, Arnold Stephen, Jr.
Birthdate: 1968-03-20
Gender: male
Nationality: USA
Birthplace: New York City, New York, USA
Places of residence: New York City, New York, USA
Education: Brown University (BA|1990)
Occupations: author
writer
journalist
Relationships: Sunstein, Cass (First Cousin)
Organizations: Esquire
Mental Floss
Agent: Sloan Harris (ICM)

Members

Reviews

The know-it-all : one man's humble quest to become… by A. J. Jacobs

Enjoyable tale of one man’s quest to read the encyclopedia and lord his knowledge over the rest of mankind, and how it backfires on him and lea es him both wiser and humbler. Lots of neat little trivia and factoids to enjoy throughout and a good deL of humor as well

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cspiwak | 161 other reviews | Mar 6, 2024 |

Drop Dead Healthy by A.J. Jacobs

Another enjoyable adventure with AJ. I don't think I'll ever enjoy him as much as I did in The Know-It-All but this was pretty good.

Light reading, funny, with some interesting factoids about healthy living.

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hmonkeyreads | 41 other reviews | Jan 25, 2024 |

The Guinea Pig Diaries: My Life as an Experiment by A. J. Jacobs

AJ is great. Not my favorite of his, but great light reading and I can't wait for his next experiment!

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hmonkeyreads | 54 other reviews | Jan 25, 2024 |

The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble… by A. J. Jacobs

An impossible task to follow the bible literally for an entire year. (I don't think it can be done for an entire day). This was an interesting read and I learned more about the bible than I thought I would. He tried with sincerity to explore a more biblical life and although there were moments that made me laugh out loud I appreciated the fact that he approached this undertaking as an agnostic but with an open mind and devoted attempt.

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MsTera | 191 other reviews | Oct 10, 2023 |

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