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 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. ( )

This was a book I picked up at a library sale on a whim. I don't read too much non-fiction, and generally prefer books in the fantasy genre. However, once I picked this one up, I couldn't put it down. It may not be anything life-changing, but it is a fun and often informative read, as we join Jacobs in his quest to read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica. There were many laugh-out-loud moments (my apologies to those sitting next to me on the plane), and I may have even learned a thing or two along the way. Highly recommended. ( )

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 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. ( )

Another great book, highly recommended etc. Nothing groundbreaking just interesting, funny, and "good fun."

Quotes in private comments.

Right now, I'm too tired and pissed off at LibraryThing and it's 200-books-only-for-free-people policy to write more. ( )

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 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. ( )