The Know-It-All

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 33,000 Pages44 Million Words10 Billion Years Of History1 Obsessed ManTo 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 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 struggle between the all consuming quest for factual knowledge and the undeniable gift of hard won wisdom. Read The Know-It-All – kino-fada.fr This book chronicles snarky rich kid he is actually 35 A.J Jacob s quest to read The Encyclopedia Brittanica from A Z, in an attempt to become the smartest person in the world Jacobs breaks the book into alphabetical chapters and free associates on the entries that he finds interesting This book was by no means dull, but it was interesting in the way that flipping through the encyclopedia or the dictionary yourself is interesting as you scan the pages you find weird little tidbits that This book chronicles snarky rich kid he is actually 35 A.J Jacob s quest to read The Encyclopedia Brittanica from A Z, in an attempt to become the smartest person in the world Jacobs breaks the book into alphabetical chapters and free associates on the entries that he finds interesting This book was by no means dull, but it was interesting in the way that flipping through the encyclopedia or the dictionary yourself is interesting as you scan the pages you find weird little tidbits that catch your fancy So as a list of weird little tidbits, this book is amusing, but it sort of reinforces the foolishness of Jacob s enterprise If this 369 page book represents all you think merits reflection in the massive, massive Britannica, what is the point of doing this And the half assed summation saying that you learned about the...This was a littlelike actually reading the Encyclopedia Britannica than I was really prepared for I think it took me longer to read this book than it took Jacobs to read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica, too So, I m not sure what that says about my reading stamina It took Jacobs something like a year to read the encyclopedia I think it took me two years to read this book Although I don t really get how it s possible that it took him a year because I feel like waythan half of t This was a littlelike actually reading the Encyclopedia Britannica than I was really prepared for I think it took me longer to read this book than it took Jacobs to read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica, too So, I m not sure what that says about my reading stamina It took Jacobs something like a year to read the encyclopedia I think it took me two years to read this book Although I don t really get how it s possible that it took him a year because I feel like waythan half of the book was about Jacobs and his wife trying to get pregnant, but then she was seven months pregnant when the book was over Maybe he just read a lot...I saw this dude in person talking about his newer book The Year of Living Bibically he seemed quirky, intelligent, curious, funny, and overall quite interesting In time I saw that he used the same one liners in every medium available and he was kind of obnoxious, but this was before that He cast quite a spell on me and I knew I wanted to buy one of his books then He had just talked about The Year , it was newer, and honestly it just seemed a lotinteresting than a book about readin I saw this dude in person talking about his newer book The Year of Living Bibically he seemed quirky, intelligent, curious, funny, and overall quite interesting In time I saw that he used the same one liners in every medium available and he was kind of obnoxious, but this was before that He cast quite a spell on me and I knew I wanted to buy one of his books then He had j...What a thoroughly enjoyable book When Esquire editor A.J Jacobs sets out to read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica, you can guess you re going to get lots of interesting trivia tidbits from the world s leading compendium of knowledge.But what makes the book farrewarding is that A.J Jacobs is flat out funny And after suffering through all...first of all, since when is i spent a year ________ing a trendy model for a book seems like they re all over the place now, but i don t remember seeing quite the plethora before my friend beth spent a year following the advice of self help gurus a.j jacobs read the entire encyclopedia brittanica and then there s that me julia cooking lady karaoke nation the dishwasher book self made man the gal who posed as a dude early bird the guy who spent a year at a retirement community first of all, since when is i spent a year ________ing a trendy model for a book seems like they re all over the place now, but i don t remember seeing quite the plethora before my friend beth spent a year following the advice of self help gurus a.j jaco...I loved this book.Reminds me of when I was a child and would read the encyclopedia because there was nothing else in the house.Extremely funny, one of the only books to actually make me laugh out loud no matter where I was.I laughed out loud repeatedly through this book I even made my husband read itI ve read this book three times Jacobs is funny and fantastic Read anything of his.This is the first book by the author who wrote The Year of Living Biblically, which I read last month In this one, Jacobs decides to become the smartest person in the world by reading the Encyclopedia Brittanica from beginning to end Jacobs has a separate chapter for every letter, and within the chapter he divides the sections out by subjects within that letter highlighting important facts for us, and throwing in stories about how this quest is affecting his personal life mostly making him This is the first book by the author who wrote The Year of Living Biblically, which I read last month In this one, Jacobs decides to become the smartest person in the world by reading the Encyclopedia Brittanica from beginning to end Jacobs has a separate chapter for every letter, and within the chapter he divides the sections out by subjects with...I decided to clear my rating I didn t find it particularly amusing, but it didn t repulse me or anything The thing is, a lot of us bookish kids back in days of yore did find ourselves at some point sitting down and reading encyclopedias So, as far as I m concerned, Jacobs is way late to the game.

• English
• 03 February 2018
A.J. Jacobs
• Paperback
• 389 pages
• 0743250621
• A.J. Jacobs
• The Know-It-All