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The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World (Unabridged Edition)
The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World (Unabridged Edition)
The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World (Unabridged Edition)
Audiobook15 hours

The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World (Unabridged Edition)

Written by A.J. Jacobs

Narrated by Geoffrey Cantor

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

()

About this audiobook

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.

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, shall we say, 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.

Editor's Note

He knows too much…

Thankfully, the book is more than a random grab bag of trivia—it's also a look into the nature of intelligence & what happens to one man when he has too much knowledge for his own good. A laugh-out-loud funny book.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateSep 27, 2004
ISBN9781598871715
The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World (Unabridged Edition)
Author

A.J. Jacobs

A.J. Jacobs is the editor of What It Feels Like and the author of The Two Kings: Jesus and Elvis and America Off-Line. He is the senior editor of Esquire and has written for The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, Glamour, New York magazine, New York Observer, and other publications.

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Reviews for The Know-It-All

Rating: 4.042016806722689 out of 5 stars
4/5

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Jacobs' tone gets whiny from time to time, but his neuroses and the constant asides into his and his wife's attempts to have a child make it a fun read.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    What starts as a fun read continues on ... and on ... and on. What we get is basically whatever-comes-into-my-head journaling of his grand feat. There are a lot of interesting tidbits shared, but also the surprising use of random obscenity and adult themes.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Reading the encyclopedia as a personal challenge & ending up with a very funny book.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I highly recommend this book. Besides learning some trivia/information without having to read all 30+ volumes of the encyclopedia, AJ shares his wisdom about life that he gathered through his quest from A to Z. The book has interesting information, funny sidebars, and brings up some good questions. The alternate is to order a set of Brittanica yourself and start reading.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Pretty witty way to write your memoirs. Not a straight recount of his life (since no-one would read that), but a mix of facts and family quirks, and some good laughs. Really, Jacobs' family sounds more like fiction anyways. So, what did I learn from Jacobs' read? Some facts I did not previously know:- David Livingston died of hemorrhoids (you can die of hemorrhoids???)- Pythagoras founded a religious brotherhood who, among other things, were forbidden to touch beans (beans? What's the evil in beans??)- Marcel Proust's madeleine cookie was in real life a rusk biscuit, not a madeleine at all (OK, this fact might only be interesting to you fellow foodie nerds)- The Berserkers went into battle naked (hmm, not quite sure this is true, but it makes for good conversation)- Luxembourg has the highest alcohol consumption per capita (I really had a few other countries as candidates for this "honor")- The most eastern state of the US is Alaska, since a couple of the Aleutian Islands cross the 180th meridian (this one at least could be used to win some sort of bet - like the fact that Denmark is, by area, the largest of the Nordic countries)- The longest one-syllable word in the English language is "screech" (not sure what use this knowledge is - but I'm a wordoholic, so I'll squeeze it in somewhere!)- When the Bastille was stormed it had been largely unused for years and held only 7 prisoners (talk about a small scale operation that mushroomed!)- Benito Mussolini had a Jewish mistress (is this the very definition of hypocrisy?)
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Funny (even historical at times) read. A case of when background is more important that fore - damning overview of sad state of the US of A., Mark Twain-style.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I would recommend this book to anyone who Googles intriguing Jeopardy! questions, will stop mid-sentence to look up a word or would, if given the option, stay in school forever. You may not understand his desire to put a marriage or a career in danger just to read the encyclopedia, but you've got to admire his perseverance. As an added bonus, the book has its moments of hilarity. I found reading this book a similar experience to my favorite lectures in college.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I listened to this book on tape while doing things like washing dishes. It would have been tiresome to actually read, or to listen for long periods, but in short spurts it was very interesting.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    It should really be called "The Insufferable Know-It-All Who Thinks He's Funny".
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    This book took FOREVER to read! I could only read it a few pages at a time (as would be the case with reading the actual encyclopedia) and read MANY books in between. As someone else commented, it seriously got old after awhile. Also, it has been 2 months since I've read it and I can remember practically nothing that I learned. I have vague memories of an animal with a lot of assholes, but that's about it.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I liked this book. When I started it, I thought I was really going to like it a lot. The writer is amusing and he picks some whacky stuff out of the encyclopedia that made me laugh out loud at times. I liked the interaction with his family and friends at the beginning, but it started to weigh on me after a while as those passages seemed to get longer and longer. I picked up the next book of his, so I'm interested to see if the style is the same. Would recommend it, but you might find yourself fast-forwarding in parts like I did.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Awesome. Laughed out loud at several parts in the book. He even got to meet a personal god of mine, Alex Trebek. Really inspired me to read more non-fiction and gave me the ammo to have more annoying trivia knowledge.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I really enjoyed this book. AJ sets out to read the entire encyclopedia, and in the process we learn a lot about his life, and about everything. The book is broken down into alphabetical chapters, and AJ shares the most interesting points from each letter of the book. In addition, certain words start off as a summary of that topic, but then go off on a tangent about his own life. Through these tangents, we learn about his job, marriage, and family. I found the balance between interesting facts and personal life about right, and enjoyed the facts that AJ pulled out, as well as how he tied them together (people who died the same way, obsessions with cross-eyed people, etc.). A good read!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    It's charming, witty, and crammed with fun-filled factoids. I'd like to take a moment to personally thank Mr. Jacobs for reading the entire Britannica oeuvre, so I won't have to.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I was probably six the first time I decided to read the encyclopedia, I made it maybe 10 pages into A. Through the years I decided to read it (the dictionary or the Bible) many more times with just about the same success. When I saw the premise of Know-It-All I knew this book was for me, and it didn't disappoint.The author juxtaposes amusing entries from the encyclopedia with anecdotes from his personal life during this intense encyclopedia reading year. Laugh out loud funny in parts I highly recommend it to all the book nerds out there who ever wanted to, but didn't read the encyclopedia.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I loved this book! Jacobs set a lofty goal for himself and writes about it with humour and insight. The sections involving his father were favourites for me as well as the (internal) competition he created with his brother-in-law who really is a Know-It-All. I highly recommend this book.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I liked this book because I have a head for (sometimes) useful information and would pull an encyclopedia off the shelve when I was younger to read bits and pieces. Like a previous book of his, The Year of Living Biblically, he writes with humor and honesty.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Hilarious account at author's attempt to be the smartest man in the world, like he believed he was when he was a kid.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Entertaining, funny, the author endeared himself to me.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I really liked this book! Entertaining and informative all at once. I may have to read more by Mr. Jacobs!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    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.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I read “The Year of living biblically” before, from the same author, and had a blast, so I had big expectations about this book. My boyfriend read it a couple of months ago, and just like me with “Lamb” he would laugh out loud and read me excerpts from it. Needless to say, I was craving to read it myself and I was in for a treat.I think I can now say with confidence that I really like the way Jacobs writes, to be honest I have never read anything else from him, but these 2 books have been entertaining and even better full of new knowledge.His quest to read the Encyclopaedia Britannica starts actually with his father, who also tried to read the whole thing, but couldn’t pass the B section (I think I wouldn’t be able to finish the A, but never mind that). Also, because Jacobs is starting to feel dumber, which I can relate to, feeling like a lot of knowledge just escapes from you and there is nothing you can do. Actually, if I’m completely honest, I feel related to a bunch of character traits from Jacobs, although I wouldn’t consider myself as a germaphobe. But since this is not an essay (BTW, this I learn with the book, this word was coined by using the French term “essai” which means try. I had no idea) about my similes with Jacobs, let’s just say that I feel REALLY awkward in a crowd (more than 10 people is a crowd to me), I totally understand his fear of losing his intelligence, and like Julie, I am bit of a order freak…The book is written the same way as the encyclopedia, every chapter is a letter. But is not a copy-paste of definitions but mostly a compilation of ha and hum moments about everyday things and not so everyday situations. At the same time, the words sometimes fall appropriately in moments of Jacobs’ life. Another quest is going on in his life…being a father. You cross your fingers every time, hoping that this will be the moment when Julie (his wife) becomes pregnant. But off course there is more side stories, the constant rivalry with Julie’s brother, Eric, a know-it-all in himself, not afraid to gloat and even correct the EB (yes, he did it). Jacobs encounters with Mensa, he joining and then feeling not so good about it. Wanting to go into Jeopardy!, meet Alex Trebeck and then learn that because of this he cannot longer compete! (Another thing I didn’t know). Also, he has all this movie ideas (Young Ghandi for example, I am sure would be a hit!).At the end, he goes to How to be a Millionaire and I’ve been looking for that video all over the internet, with no success. I won’t tell you how far he goes, because for me that was a moment of stress. I think a book is really good, when you can feel the same emotions of the main character, either fiction or non-fiction. When the author manages to make you feel through words…is just that magical moment that you have than involves every single inch of what you are. Talking about words…his final words to his dad, they were ever so touching, that I was glad I was done with my work day, so no one actually saw me teary eyed.I’m happy to say that there’s another book coming from the same author (Available in April), called Drop Dead Healthy. In the mean time, I while look for My life as an experiment, a book that promises to be as entertaining as the last two.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Fun, funny, and still informational!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    New York writer sets to work on reading his way through the Encyclopaedica Britannica--book by book and then tries to impress his family and associates with his new-found knowledge one letter at a time. Hysterically funny--thoroughly enjoyed! I listened to this in the car; my teenagers usually ask if they can stop my audiobook and listen to the radio, but they loved this. They would hop in the car and catch a segment somewhere in progress; when we arrived home they would beg to stay in the car and listen to more. I wonder if the reason why we enjoyed it so much is because we are all so familiar with that type of character.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is the best book I've read in quite a long time... I don't give out a lot of 5s... On the surface this book may seem like a real gimmicky, schticky one... read the encyclopedia, give some definitions, etc... but there is a lot more going one here than that. First of all, this guy can write. Great pacing, knows where to put the jokes, knows when to get serious, etc. Secondly, he is funny. Really funny. Thirdly, this book is only superficially about reading the encyclopedia. That's what draws you in, but it's the stories he relates about his wife, his father, his brother-in-law, and the rest of the crew that absolutely move this book. Jacobs wins the award for painting the coolest, most wonderful, most loving portrait of a family without being sappy and syrupy that a person could write. I don't know, maybe I'm just as eccentric as he is, but his father sounds like one of the coolest humans ever to walk the earth, and his wife is certainly in the running for the most patient and understanding. You should read this book yesterday.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A great read. Fun platform to learn about random topics in a hilarious memoir.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    You will laugh on each page as you journey with Jacobs in his attempt to digest one of the world's most renounced compendiums of knowledge.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A man decides to read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica from cover to cover. This was not quite the book I thought it was going to be. I expected it to be a lot of commentary on the information itself and the layout of the Britannica. And it was, in part, but it was also about Jacobs's relationship with his father; his attempts to get on trivia game shows; enthusiasts of "intellectual" pursuits like crosswords, speed-reading, and Mensa; he and his wife's difficulties conceiving; one-upping his perfect brother-in-law; and the constant connections he finds between his life and what he's just read about in the encyclopedia. It was very readable and sometimes quite funny, but in the end it's basically the diary of a magazine editor who decides to do something bizarre. He never says anything of the sort, but I could not shake the feeling that writing this book was a significant part of his motivation behind the project. Still, I did enjoy the random trivia shared here and there. If nothing else, it convinced me that I have exactly no desire whatsoever to read the Encyclopedia Britannica myself. So Jacobs has saved me a whole bunch of time.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    As insufferably annoying as the title implies, but it had at least two genuinely amusing scenes that kept me reading in hopes of more. Alas, it was not to be.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I cannot remember the last time I laughed out loud while reading a book by myself. This happened several times while reading this book. Not only is it humorous, but it is also very enlightening.