The Know-it-all: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World

by A J Jacobs

You go to school. You work hard. You go to university. You learn a lot. You're pretty pleased with yourself. You're erudite, well-read and know a whole bunch of obscure facts guaranteed at some point to appear in the questions on Mastermind or University Challenge. Then you get a job, and ten years later you stumble over Beckett but are eloquent about Big Brother and you discuss Kyle like you used to discuss Kierkegaard. Sound familiar? Well it happened to AJ Jacobs too. But he decided to do something about it. An editor at Esquire, Jacobs had built up an impressive knowledge of celebrity trivia - the cure was going to take a long time. It was big - 33,000 pages, it was heavy - 9 stone. It was the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Join Jacobs on his journey of discovery as he learns every known fact - however arcane - in the entire world. Sympathise with his long-suffering wife. Share his glee at finding a mistake. Wince with embarrassment as he fails to get into Mensa - even armed with all this information, and blows it on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
Grimace as he pathetically attempts to turn every dinner party conversation to topics beginning with "A" - he'd only just begun then. Imagine Bill Bryson meeting Schott's Original Miscellany and Woody Allen at a party - that's The Know-It-All. Part assemblage of fascinating trivia, part journey through adulthood, all laugh-out-loud funny.

• ISBN10: 0743250605
• ISBN13: 9780743250603
• Publish Date: 21 September 2004
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Simon & Schuster
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 386
• Language: English

Reviews

[Michael @ Knowledge Lost]

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; http://literary-exploration.com/2013/11/27/book-review-the-know-it-all/

[mary]

This was a fun contemporary book to read for a change. A lot of pop culture references from 2004 and 2005. So quite some time ago, but still nice to read. Also this was a character (author in this case) that I could identify with since I could see myself reading the dictionary as entertainment. However, I do disagree with with some of the reviews as stating this novel is hilarious. I laughed out loud probably only a handful of times. The bits about Eric and "Youllstarveland" were probably my favorite. Also learning new grammar terms is always a plus.

[remo]

Este libro es muy divertido. A un tipo le da por leerse entera la enciclopedia británica en un año. Organiza su vida y se pone a leer, contando en este libro las entradas más interesantes (léase raras). Además, como dice que saberse la enciclopedia le convertirá en el tipo más listo del mundo, se apunta a Mensa* (la asociación para el 2% de personas más inteligentes de la Tierra) y se va a los concursos de culturilla general, del tipo Who wants to be a millionaire (el equivalente a nuestros Saber y Ganar o 50×15, pero con más solera). El autor nos cuenta también cómo afecta la lectura de la enciclopedia a su vida personal. Hay anécdotas muy graciosas (y totalmente geeks), cuando el tío mete sistemáticamente en mitad de cualquier conversación lo último que acaba de leer en la enciclopedia.