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Jun 19, 2011

Sparrow rated it:

This was a little more like 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 way more than half More...

15 comments like (18 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Jan rated it:

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 c More...

3 comments like (15 people liked it)

Aug 16, 2011

Mark rated it:

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 far more rewarding is that A.J. Jacobs is flat out funny. And after suffering through all the authors who attempt to write humor and do it badly, it is so good to be able to say that. I found myself laughing out loud More...

3 comments like (9 people liked it)

Mar 28, 2008

Edward rated it:

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 lot more interesting t More...

5 comments like (13 people liked it)

Oct 18, 2008

Louis rated it:

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.

7 comments like (9 people liked it)

Oct 25, 2008

Eliza rated it:

I laughed out loud repeatedly through this book. I even made my husband read it

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Aug 18, 2008

Abby rated it:

In this book A.J. Jacobs reads the entire Encyclopedia Britannica from A- Z, in an attempt to become the smartest person alive. I can understand. I LOVED the encyclopedia when I was a kid. However, it was the World Book (with lots of pictures), and I didn't read it A-Z. I probably lingered on articles about cats and The Beatles way more than any about mathematical concepts or historical events. But still, I know what it's like to cuddle up with an encyclopedia for the evening, just like A.J.
More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 10, 2008

Amanda rated it:

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 t More...

0 comments like (18 people liked it)

Mar 26, 2008

Cies rated it:

I suppose to be fair it is January 2 since it is now 2:00 in the morning, but I planned on writing this before the day was out and that is will enough for me to put down the 1st instead of the 2nd.
Starting a blog is a very daunting task. There are millions of them out there on every subject imaginable, and that makes it so much harder for me to believe that anyone would find what I have to say interesting. Instead I remind myself that I find what I have to say interesting and if no one More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 03, 2008

Stephanie rated it:

As anyone who knows me can attest, I generally spout information to anyone who will listen to me. Most conversations begin: I heard on NPR the other day . . . For example, did you know there's a marsupial species in Australia whose male population only lives 11 months, the last month of which is spent obsessed with procreating or that a cockroach can live up to ten days without a head? Just one of the many useless bits of knowledge I have tucked away. AJ Jacobs wrote "The Know-It-All" More...

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Mar 02, 2008

Anne rated it:

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 More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Caroline rated it:

Definitely food for you brain, but upon purchasing this book I wasn't aware the chapters of the book went from "A-Z" each chapter containing his favorite words/definitions, mixed in with narrative of his life. I liked the author, but sometimes he could really get on my nerves..if i heard one more mention of visiting his parents in "East Hampton" and countless mentions of being an "upper middle class New Yorker" writing on his "white Macintosh lap book", or More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 15, 2009

Kelli rated it:

This book taught me A LOT! The author is reading the entire Britannica encyclopedia and picks out interesting topics from each letter. He told a little bit more, O.K. a lot more, about his personal life than I wanted to know, but he had to make it interesting somehow.
Being a typical guy, he has to tell about the most perverted things he reads about. However, he also writes a lot about good lessons he learns from his reading. I felt like the author changed his perspective on life for More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Mar 24, 2008

Christine added it

I really liked this book! I loved how his wife would sort of ignore him when he would tell her a fact, then she implemented the $1 fine rule for every fact that was not pertinent to the situation. I can't imagine reading the EB - the print is terribly small and the pages are super thin. Carting those books on vacation doesn't seem like fun either. But good for this guy for sticking it out - it seems like something I would say I was going to do and then quit about 120 pages in. I was amazed at th More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 16, 2009

Embee rated it:

I purchased this book as a birthday present for my husband. I mean, look at the title... It has his name on it! (Sorry hon, you know I mean well.) While reading the book my husband would share with me funny little tid-bits and upon completion, told me he thought I'd really enjoy it... Why? Because I'm a 'Know it All' too? No, that can't possibly be true!

Anyway, this book is Great Fun! I know it sounds like the story of a guy recounting his foray into reading the entire library of Encyc More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 30, 2008

MJ rated it:

I was a little disturbed that my running partners gave this to me for Christmas and thought it was funny. However, it turned out to be a great read! A.J. Jacobs is an editor for Esquire magazine, and decides to read the Encyclopeadia Brittanica from A to Z. It takes him about a year and this book is a chronicle of what he learns about knowledge vs. intelligence and the acquisition of wisdom. The back story is that while he is reading the EB he and his wife are expecting their first child. It More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 04, 2008

Sherry rated it:

This was awesome! Kind of like a hilarious, abbreviated version of a set of encyclopedias!

It's found under humor, but is sort of a memoir? The guy complains his brain is turning to mush because the only information he takes in lately is regarding pop-culture. Why can he name all the members of N'Sync, yet forgets major historical events? So he sets out on a quest for knowledge and commits to reading the entire Encyclopedia Britannica.

This book includes author-deemed h More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 17, 2007

Anna rated it:

An interesting and fun concept—Jacobs reads the entire encyclopedia Britannica, and his book documents his progress through commentary on his entries, his life, his evolving relationship with his father and his marriage etc. The tone bothered me, though—to egocentric and much of the attempted humor fell flat. Mostly just felt like he was trying too hard. An overall review is tough because the writing pretty much sucked, but it really is interesting to read the little summaries of certain encyclo More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Feb 04, 2012

Kristine rated it:

Thank you, thank you A.J. Jacobs for waking up my mid-winter funny bone. This self-deprecating and national best-selling 2004 memoir about the author's quest to read the Encyclopaedia Britannica A-Z extracted smiles and chuckles and groans and snickers and even an occasional very unladylike guffaw! Will it make YOU laugh? That I can't say.

However, if your humor stays in hibernation, perhaps your curiosity will be aroused. I mean, don't you wonder who this guy is, what makes him ti More...

0 comments like

Jan 16, 2012

Kira rated it:

One thing The Know-It-All does quite well is convey the breadth of the world’s available knowledge, something I actually think Wikipedia minimizes by virtue of being so accessible. After all, there’s a difference between looking something up when you need to know it, and setting out to learn everything there is to know.

Indeed, whether or not I loved the final product, I still have tremendous respect for Jacobs’ mission, which I would have probably given up on by about the letter B. The More...

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Oct 18, 2011

Rick rated it:

As much as I enjoyed A.J. Jacobs' newest book, The Year of Living Biblically, I think that it doesn't hold a candle to the book that preceded it: The Know-It-All. After reading these two books, along with a handful of his articles for Esquire (he's the magazine's Editor at Large), I've developed such an appreciation for the man that I am currently debating ordering one of his older works, The Two Kings: Jesus and Elvis, which analyzes the eerie similarities between the two figures. That I'm even More...

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May 20, 2011

Bojan rated it:

When I was a kid I owned an encyclopedia that my grandpa had given us. My family owned many other reference works as well, and a little nerd that I was I had spent many hours reading and browsing those thick books that contained more knowledge than I could ever hope to absorb. There was something really appealing about the idea that all of the knowledge can be systematized and presented in a coherent, all-encompassing whole. And yet, the sheer size of those thick volumes made me wonder if I will More...

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May 06, 2011

Pro is currently reading it

Pro Kumar
The Know-it-All
By A.J. Jacobs
The Know-it-All, by A.J. Jacobs, is a book about Jacob’s quest to read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica and become the smartest man in the world. The is set up in a way that an encyclopedia is set up. It starts with the letter A and all the topics that A.J. connects to are under that letter, for example “ABO blood group” or “Absalom”. Then it continues through the alphabet as Jacobs progresses in his reading.
One connection to Ame More...

1 comment like

Jan 24, 2011

Ingrid rated it:

Another enjoyable read from Mr. Jacobs! I first read The Year of Living Biblically, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Actually, it was the book after Eat, Pray, Love that I found helpful in the healing process after my breakup because I started to really try to focus on finding my identity in Christ, and growing as an individual. I promised myself, (and Mr. Jacobs, who incidentally happens to politely reply to fanmail), that I'd read this one too. I got a copy of it and would sneak a read whenever po More...

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Oct 21, 2010

Cwalker rated it:

If you are one of those irritating people who feel it necessary to chime in or correct a tour guide's talk in an art gallery or museum, or if you add notes in book margins when you feel the author has got his facts wrong, or if you can't visit an historic building without taking a guidebook with you to read up on it first (I count myself as one of these) then this book is for you. The author fulfils an ambition - to read the EB from A to Z - and shares with the reader the quirky things he learns More...

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Sep 02, 2010

Benjamin rated it:

The "Know-It-All" by A.J. Jacobs is subtitled, "One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World." This is actually his first majorly successful book to be published but a few months ago I read his second big book, "The Year of Living Biblically." I liked it so much I just had to go buy this one as well. Mr Jacobs is a humorist and excels at describing what it's like when a "normal man" is put in abnormal circumstances. In this book, he de More...

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Aug 15, 2010

Parksy rated it:

Loved this book - very entertaining and funny... plus it touched on my love of trivia and arcane info!!!

________________________________
The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World is the title of a book by Esquire editor A. J. Jacobs, published in 2004.

It recounts his experience of reading the entire Encyclopædia Britannica; all 32 volumes of the 2002 edition, extending to over 33,000 pages with some 44 million words. He set ou More...

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Aug 11, 2010

Meg rated it:

Jacobs' book chronicles his successful bid to read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica. The book is organized alphabetically (gee, like an encyclopedia!) with entries of note spotlighted; these entries may be picked out for their general interest-value or for their relevance to Jacobs' life as he writes the book. This is not just a book about reading the encyclopedia; it's a chronicle of what it's like to undertake such an effort (to try to wedge facts from such reading into everyday conversation More...

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May 11, 2010

Bibliotropic rated it:

Words cannot properly express how much I enjoyed reading this book. I read it not too long after reading Jacobs's A Year of Living Biblically, and I loved his writing style in both books. He's got a wonderful sense of humour, nicely balancing self-deprecation and personal anecdotes in a way that really allows you to get inside his head.

This book is written in sections much like encyclopediae, with the topic name and then Jacobs writing what he found so fascinating or weird about it, More...

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Mar 04, 2010

Katherine rated it:

The foreward should have read:
"Caution! Heavy reading ahead! Not because of style, but due to subject matter and storyline direction."
Or something to that effect.

"The Know it All" is a book about one of America's quirkiest authors. He has a day job writing tabloids and has the feeling that he is losing his brain matter with each passing day. To get his intellegence back, he takes it upon himself to read the entire Britannica encyclopedia (word for w More...

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