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A. J. Jacobs

The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World Paperback – October 10, 2005

by A. J. Jacobs (Author)

498 ratings

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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 PAGES
44 MILLION WORDS
10 BILLION YEARS OF HISTORY
1 OBSESSED MAN

To 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.

Print length

400 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Simon & Schuster
Publication date

October 10, 2005
Dimensions

5.5 x 1.1 x 8.44 inches
ISBN-10

0743250621
ISBN-13

978-0743250627
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"The Know-It-All is a hilarious book and quite an impressive achievement. I've always said, why doesn't someone put out a less complete version of the encyclopedia? Well done, A.J." —Jon Stewart, host of The Daily Show

"Tender....Entertaining....This book really does seek a working definition of what it means to be smart."—Janet Maslin, The New York Times

"A.J. Jacobs turns the act of reading the entire Britannica into a hilarious memoir....It's the stunt of the book itself that allows the funny, touching memoir to be so stuffed with nutritious bits of trivia that you feel smart for reading it."—Joel Stein, Time

"The Know-It-All is funny, original, and strangely heroic. I found myself rooting on Jacobs's quixotic, totally endearing quest."—Jonathan Safran Foer, author of Everything Is Illuminated

About the Author

A.J. Jacobs is the author of Thanks a Thousand, It’s All Relative, Drop Dead Healthy, and the New York Times bestsellers The Know-It-All, The Year of Living Biblically, and My Life as an Experiment. He is a contributor to NPR, and has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Entertainment Weekly. He lives in New York City with his wife and kids. Visit him at AJJacobs.com and follow him on Twitter @ajjacobs.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Simon & Schuster; Reprint edition (October 10, 2005)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 400 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0743250621
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0743250627
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12.3 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 1.1 x 8.44 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #289,528 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #59 in History of Books
- #387 in General Books & Reading
- #562 in Journalist Biographies

Customer Reviews:
498 ratings

Customer reviews

5 star		66%
4 star		19%
3 star		7%
2 star		5%
1 star		4%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Theresa May

fascinating

Reviewed in the United States on September 30, 2017

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A truly quirky kind of book. The author attempts to read the entire 2002 encyclopedia in one year,intertwined with vignettes of his life. Frankly it sounds like it wouldn't be interesting at all. but it is. Maybe because I am an info junkie myself,but I think it is the writing. Snarky, sweet, funny, (I had to look him up in Wikipedia to see if he finally had a child, I just had to know) Another reviewer said he thought people liked the book because they liked blogs-wrong. I hate them ,but this guy's writing had me hooked. Going to see what else he has written. Well worth the reading.

11 people found this helpful

Helpful

Amanda de Luna

Hilarious!

Reviewed in the United States on November 25, 2017

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I'm only on page 12 and I am laughing so hard I am crying. Just saved almost all the rest of his books to my wishlist. Had this book sitting on the shelf for years, and just now reading it. If you want to get your blood flowing from some great belly laughs, buy this book!

10 people found this helpful

Helpful

NHBunion

Prefer His Other Books

Reviewed in the United States on January 11, 2015

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After reading a few of A.J. Jacobs's other books I ordered this one. "The Know-It-All" is much longer than his other works, & like the Encyclopedia Brittanica is very looong. I thought I had a handle on the author's personality from reading his other biographical books, but this one adds new dimensions--the boring, full-of-himself side.

The book spans the alphabet from A to Z, full of interesting tidbits about historical figures, etc. but A.J. sprinkles the pages with comings & goings from his own life. Although an interesting read, about half-way thru I wanted it to be OVER. Interestingly the hard cover copy I bought has several typos thruout--curious coming from an editor of Esquire magazine.

His sense of humor comes thru the pages as strongly as in his other works, but I didn't enjoy this one as much as "The Year of Living Biblically".

7 people found this helpful

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Mark Oestreicher

funny, but i got bored before the end

Reviewed in the United States on March 24, 2009

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i picked up a.j. jacobs' "the year of living biblically" way after most people had read it, and totally loved it. so i decided to go back and read his first bestseller -- the know it all.

"biblically" was about the author's year of trying to live everything in the bible as literally as possible. seems jacobs likes these year long challenges as writing fodder, because "the know it all" is about his personal challenge of reading the entire encyclopedia britannica in one year.

as you can imagine, reading the entire encyclopedia is quite the daunting task. and jacobs attempted to not just skim it, but actually hold onto all that information (hence the subtitle). of course, this wasn't possible.

the book is really an alphabetical collection of mini-essays -- some on the actual stuff he was learning in the EB, and some on his life that year, using topics from the EB as jumping-off points.

jacobs is witty and narcissistic (in a way that works for a writer). and the book is generally a fun read. but it took me longer to finish than any book i've read in the past few years. seriously, i think i plunked along in it (while reading other books simultaneously) for about three months. crazy. and i think the reason it took me so pickin' long is because, at the end of the day, it's really just a very long collection of witty mini-essays -- like an encyclopedia that's fun to read. without a narrative arc (and, even most non-fiction books have a narrative arc), i just got... restless. i was going to say i got bored, but that wasn't quite accurate. i just really wanted to finish the book.

so, fun read. but, ultimately, it wasn't sustainable for me.

3 people found this helpful

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Kurt Conner

A potentially irritating gimmick yields one of the most beautiful memoirs I have ever read

Reviewed in the United States on May 27, 2010

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This book is not as good as The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible , but it's still a terrific read once it gets going. The story has a fascinating arrangement - each chapter covers one letter of the alphabet (except XYZ, which are lumped together), and the story is guided by alphabetical subheadings. A section with the title of an artist may lead to a snarky one-liner about the man's fetishes, while a section with the title of a mountain range yields a revealing meditation on a time that Jacobs was lost in that range (and the effect that the incident had on his relationship with his father). These longer musings, which are much more frequent near the end of the alphabet, make the book truly worthwhile, and Jacobs really seems to be baring his soul (as opposed to the difficult first sections, where he is only willing to bare his pop culture fluency and his most unusual trying-too-hard-for-attention personality quirks).

The basic story is interesting, as Jacobs embarks on a quest to read the entire Encyclopaedia Brittannica, but the quest is a self-centered one, and it is difficult to read the inconveniences suffered by Jacobs' wife and other family members when the reader knows that even Jacobs doesn't seem convinced that his pursuit has a worthwhile goal. As the book progresses, though, Jacobs matures as a storyteller and presents beautiful studies of intelligence and wisdom, along with honest struggles with infertility and with his larger-than-life father. By the end, this is a truly wonderful book, and I highly recommend it.

6 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Farah

SO good!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 28, 2017

Verified Purchase

It's been a while since I've read a laugh-out-loud book, but this had me chuckling and giggling aloud so many times.
I wondered how he could make reading about someone who read the Encyclopaedia Britannica even remotely interesting, but he manages to make it more than that.
AND you get to learn little snippets of information you may not have known before.
It's well-written and it's funny.

2 people found this helpful

Hilary

Knowing a little about a lot

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 17, 2009

Verified Purchase

I found this book absolutely fascinating. It's well written, full of interesting facts and a sideways take on one of the best and most-respected Encyclopaedias in the world - the Encycolpaedia Britannica. It's also very laugh-out-loud funny. A J Jacobs is based in New York and isn't well-known in the UK, and the reason I came across him was because I picked up another of his books called 'The Year of Living Biblically' (which another interesting and funny book) on a trip to the States. If you like Bill Bryson's books you might enjoy these as well.

4 people found this helpful

Steph hutson

Great

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 23, 2018

Verified Purchase

Great read, second only to the year of living biblically

Dr. Ian Pitchford

Absorbing

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 22, 2018

Verified Purchase

A thoroughly delightful combination of facts, wisdom and quirky biography. It is the only book I’ve ever read that made me want to hug the author.

John Hardy

Very funny but also illuminating

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 31, 2015

Verified Purchase

I have a soft spot for Jacobs. His self-deprecating humour is very entertaining but he is generous in his handling of the sins, pecadillos and peculiarities of others. He does not go for cheap laughs at the expense of others. Good stuff.

2 people found this helpful

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