Product Description

On leaving school or university, you feel pretty pleased with yourself. You've learnt a lot, you're well-read, and you 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're more eloquent and eager to argue about Britney and Big Brother than Beckett and the Brontes. Sound familiar? Well, it happened to AJ Jacobs too. As an editor at "Esquire", Jacobs had built up an impressive knowledge of celebrity trivia - and the cure was going to take a long time. While others read a broadsheet at the weekend, or become casual newsnight enthusiasts, Jacobs elected to read the "Encyclopaedia Britannica". All 33,000 pages of it. Bill Bryson meets Schott's Original; Miscellany meets Woody Allen. Part assemblage of fascinating trivia, part journey through adulthood, all laugh-out-loud funny.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #196893 in Books
• Published on: 2006-02-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

Review
"* 'The Know-It-All is a terrific book. It's a lot shorter than the encyclopedia, and funnier, and you'll remember more of it. Plus, if it falls off the shelf onto your head, you'll live.' P.J. O'Rourke * 'A jape of a book...with Jacobs...coming across as a slightly younger and Jewish Bill Bryson. Some of his quips are worthy even of Woody Allen... Hilarious' Guardian * 'For those who enjoy learning about some of the stranger facts about the world in which we live and who appreciate having a guide of some charm, The Know-It-All will be something of a treat.' Sunday Times * 'The Know-It-All is one of the most informative humorous books and one of the funniest collections of information that I have seen in a long time. (Note to publishers: that's the sentence you can put on the back of the next edition if you like).' Daily Express"

Daily Mail
'...frequently funny and sometimes downright hilarious'

From the Publisher
A. J. Jacobs tells the story of his bizarre, hilarious and seemingly impossible quest to read the Encyclopaedia Britannica from A to Z.

Customer Reviews

Loveable know-it-all
"If things continue at this rate, by my fortieth birthday, I'll be spending my days watching 'Wheel of Fortune' and drooling into a bucket." It's hard to imagine that a book about reading the encyclopedia could be one of the funniest books of 2004, but AJ Jacobs' tongue-in-cheek journey of knowledge is just that.

Feeling that he was too stupid, AJ Jacobs decided to read the encyclopedia from A ("a-ak") to Z ("Zywiec"), and gain huge gobs of knowledge along the way. His wife thinks it's a waste and his friends think that he's starting to crack ("I guess you're not up to P, for 'Please shut up'"). His father doesn't think he can do it, because he once tried, and stopped somewhere in the mid-Bs.

Undaunted, Jacobs reads determinedly through the encyclopedias, finding out various facts: Absalom ("has the oddest death so far in the encyclopedia"), how Hollywood stole "Planet of the Apes" from the Aztecs, Queen Victoria's musical bustle, the metric system, a hippie-Christian sex cult, and the delinquent antics of teenage Gandhi. Not to mention "Addled Brain Syndrome," which comes from too much encyclopedia reading.

As he slowly but faithfully slogs through the encyclopedia, Jacobs finds out quite a few intriguing new things -- not just about himself, but about the difference between being smart and knowledgeable. And as he offers his wacky thoughts on the various encyclopedia entries, he often strays into tangents about his family, his childhood (he had a phobia about people touching his head), and his struggles with his wife to have a baby.

"The Know-It-All : One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World" -- the title says it all. The book is basically the encyclopedia, filtered through the thoughts of a thirtysomething guy with quite a sense of humor. It's certainly understandable that Jacobs would want to be smarter -- everyone feels intellectually insufficient at one time or another.

What makes Jacobs so funny? His self-deprecating humor, for one thing -- he isn't afraid to make fun of himself (and his brain capacity) constantly. One of the funniest scenes of the book is when he goes to a party and tries to display his newfound knowledge, only to make his pals very nervous. When told "I can't wait to get some sun. Look how white I am," Jacobs simply blurts out, "Albinism affects one in twenty thousand Americans." Nice try, but no cigar.

And... Jacobs is just funny. He has a knack for adding his own thoughts about the entries; when reading about Rubens, he comments, "Now I know: I don't have to yell and scream and throw artichokes at waiters to qualify as an artistic genius." And it takes someone with a real sense of comic timing to say "In the 18th century, everyone smelled like salad" and make it seem not only funny, but logical.

"The Know-It-All : One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World" is an apt title for a wildly entertaining book. Stranger than fiction, and a heck of a lot more entertaining. And educational.

A fun read.
Reading the Brittanica from a-z is not a task many people have completed and this excellent book is the story of one man who did and what effect it had on his life.
Witty, fun and informative, this book is written in a great style and the only thing that annoyed me is Americanisms like "math", etc. (Though the author is American I may add!)

It's fun and easy to read and you will learn some bizarre facts along the way.

Give it a go!

The ultimate quest
I love books like this... quest books...or maybe that should be stupid project books!
I have recently read about Dave Gorman with his quest for namesakes and Googlewhacks, about John Donoghue with his funny place names and marsupial Elvis (who admits up front that he's lived a life of pointless quests), Tony Hawks and Danny Wallace and their various offbeat projects but now I have found the ultimate...the quest to become the smartest person in the world!
What differentiates this from the likes of 'Are you Dave Gorman' or 'Shakespeare My Butt!' is that this is actually a useful quest... but it's is just as funny!!
This guy has the knack of making it all so interesting too. I bought it for my summer holidays, but read it after getting it home. Doh!
You could do worse than adding this to your quest library....a fantastic book.