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Loading... The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in… (2006)by A. J. Jacobs
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No current Talk conversations about this book. Like Morgan Spurlock's "Supersize Me" experiment, I kept reading this book, bemoaning "Why didn't I think of this????" Nicely woven concept that educates the reader while drawing you into the author's personal life during the process. This book could've been a clunker if mishandled, but Jacobs has an alchemist's touch, blending humor and heart along the encyclopedic journey. An interesting read, but not altogether life changing. I figured I'd go back and read the book that started them all and, boy, does having a child change you. His vocabulary has sure mellowed some this first book. Still funny, still AJ, but I prefer his others. Anyone curious about the experience of reading an encyclopedia all the way through should pick up this book. The author managed that feat, which would take me at least two years if I replaced all of my book reading with this one project. Like a marathon, I was impressed that a person would attempt such a thing, especially since I have no intention of doing it myself. I really enjoyed the way that this book combined stories from the author's life with trivia that he learned reading the encyclopedia. There is a significant amount of biographical info about the author baked into his stories, and it provides insight into why he would retain and share particular bits of info from his readings. One tidbit I liked is that Teddy Roosevelt commissioned a Presidential inquiry into the way that collegiate football was played in the early 1900's because more than a dozen players had died in a single season, and as a result the rules of the game were revised to allow forward passes. This is a reasonably representative fact from the book for a few reasons: It is sports-related, America-centric, and in the book it included a lot of details (the specific year and number of players) that I have not remembered.
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.
33,000 pages 44 million words 10 billion years of history 1 obsessed man 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. No library descriptions found. |
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![]() GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)031 — Information Dictionaries and Encyclopedias AmericanLC ClassificationRatingAverage:![]()
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tons of information, and the A to Z ending,
with Good News about the upcoming Baby.
After reading his book, I bribed my rfeluctant daughter and nephew into going to his
Madison, Wisconsin,
workshop many years ago - they ended up buying autographed copies of his new book! (