The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest To Become The Smartest Person In The World,   ISBN:9780786271313

Customer Rating: 

Within the first two pages of the book, A. J. Jacobs commits three syntactical errors: he says that he "brought D. H. Lawrence novels on vacation," when he should say he "took" them; he refers to the years since "graduating college," when he should say since he "was graduated from college," or at least " since graduating from college"; and he says that he remembers "a couple things" from college, thought apparently one of them is not the fact that he needs the preposition "of" in the expression "a couple of things." I stopped reading the book at this point.

Customer Rating: 

interesting, witty, funny, and just generally entertaining. this won't be the most profound book you'll ever read, but it is good fun, with a bunch of really great trivia facts thrown in. the writing is done in a simple alphabetical format, following the exploration of the britannica in chronological order, with lots of personal memoirs and journalist-like commentary of the actual feat itself.

the writing style made this an easy book to read in short segments without really breaking up the flow of the story in any way, which i appreciated. the facts, most of which i've forgotten now, were at times hilarious, depressing, or just weird. i found myself sharing the more random facts with my boyfriend (who i'm sure appreciated them just as much as jacobs' wife, which most of the times means not so much), but, the information was often just too interesting not to share.

i would definitely recommend this to anyone who loves trivia, random information and subtle humor, but i could understand that it would not be a book for everyone.

Customer Rating: 

I came across AJ Jacobs when I picked up the book that followed this one, where he literally lives by the Bible for one year. Throughout that book he made many mentions to the Know-It-All and I added it to my "must read" list. After all, I'm not just interested in the Bible and people's interpretations, but also general trivia. And I'm glad I got around to picking this up.

This isn't just an A to Z highlight of the Encyclopedia Britannica (though there is a lot of that as well) but also how reading it cover to cover has impacted his life. I was quite entertained on how people would react to just hearing the news of his quest to read the Encyclopedia. A couple were supportive, a lot were disbelieving, and a lot seemed to scorn him for such an endeavor. There are also several side stories including his relationship with his immediate and extended family, especially his father, and his desire to prove himself to others he considers to be very smart. His attempts to get onto a game who to financially benefit from his new-found knowledge, not to mention the outcome of such endeavors, are a great read. Also, one side story was AJ's desire to become a father and what him and his wife, Julie, had to endure in order to achieve this. I was also very enthralled by his journey to figure out what makes the smartest person on earth. Is it the one who gets to the elite of the Mensa clubs? Is it one who has all the facts? Is it the one who can apply them in every situation? Who really has the answer to that?

I got a lot out of this book, and it wasn't just the interesting tid-bits of knowledge he picked up and found interesting enough to write about. It was the story of his life as he accomplished this amazing feat. By the end, you come to love AJ and his family and look forward to other books that he comes out with in the future. You come to enjoy his brutal honesty and he doesn't seem to leave anything unbarred during the time it took to do this.

Anyways, I wouldn't change a word of this book. I enjoyed it cover to cover, probably a lot more than AJ enjoyed reading the Encyclopedia. I loved it and I continue to look forward to other books.

Customer Rating: 

The Know-It-All reading experience for me was not too unlike reading the complete Encyclopedia Britannica - it kind of bogs down around the letter M.

On the surface, the above statement may sound like a panning of the book (and to some extent it is), but it's more a reflection of the subject-matter than the quality of the content.

The book is one man's abbreviated journal of his successful attempt to read the EB from front to back - a daunting task for any determined reader. Throughout the book the author shares with the reader numerous bits of trivia, facts and abridgments of entries that he found interesting. And were it a book that only offered to digest the contents of the EB then it would have failed miserably (imho). But Jacobs deftly intermixes an ongoing story of how the task of reading the EB impacted him, his wife, his friends and family and what legacy his mission might leave for his unborn child. The end result is a recounting of a moderately touching personal journey that most anyone could enjoy.

If you don't get bogged down in the myriad of facts that Jacobs draws from the EB, then you'll be rewarded with a nice story and a happy ending. And, if you're looking for some tidbits of trivia to wow the folks at your next cocktail party then you've just found your next book to read.

Customer Rating: 

In The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World, the author, A.J. Jacobs, chronicles his year long quest to read the entire Encylopaedia Britannica. There is no question that the book is funny, as in have to put the book down and just laugh out loud for several seconds funny. I don't see how this could possibly even be in question with positive endorsements from Jon Stewart and P.J. O'Rourke; two very funny men in their own right. However, it is not just a bit of humor for the sake of humor, it is also a very heart-warming vignette into the life and family of the author at a very crucial time. The author's father had once attempted the same feat and made it only to the B's. The author mentions over and over again that his father and his grandfather are very successful and famous attorneys in New York City. It is clear he feels that as an Editor for Esquire Magazine he may not have lived up to the family expectations for him. Also, during the year of his quest, the author and his wife are trying to conceive their first child and are frustrated by the lack of progress and the fact that their friends and family members all seem capable of producing attractive offspring at will. The authors warmth and charm, the admiration he has for his family all come through in his self-deprecating brand of humor. But, what this book is really about is the story of a man, who on the eve of fatherhood himself, comes to accept himself and his accomplishments and the realization that his father always has.