1. The Know-It-All: One Mans Humble
Quest to Become the Smartest
Person in the World by A. J. Jacobs
Trivia-Minded
You go to school. You work hard. You go to university. You learn a lot.
Youre pretty pleased with yourself. Youre erudite, well-read and 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 stumble over Beckett but are eloquent about Big
Brother and you discuss Kyle like you used to discuss Kierkegaard. Sound
familiar? Well it happened to AJ Jacobs too. But he decided to do
something about it. An editor at Esquire, Jacobs had built up an
impressive knowledge of celebrity trivia - the cure was going to take a long
time. It was big - 33,000 pages, it was heavy - 9 stone. It was the
Encyclopaedia Britannica. Join Jacobs on his journey of discovery as he
learns every known fact - however arcane - in the entire world.
Sympathise with his long-suffering wife. Share his glee at finding a
mistake. Wince with embarrassment as he fails to get into Mensa - even
armed with all this information, and blows it on Who Wants to Be a
Millionaire? Grimace as he pathetically attempts to turn every dinner party
conversation to topics beginning with A - hed only just begun then. Imagine
Bill Bryson meeting Schotts Original Miscellany and Woody Allen at a party
- thats The Know-It-All. Part assemblage of fascinating trivia, part journey
through adulthood, all laugh-out-loud funny.
A. J. Jacobs performed a feat few people have ever attempted. In the
span of one year he totally read the prestigious "Encyclopedia Britannica".
He points out trivia and humorous facts. Jacobs concludes that knowing a
vast totality of isolated facts doesn't bestow wisdom upon a person. Facts
must be coupled with ideas, insight, astute perception, abstract thought,
flexibility, imagination and logic. Consequently, comprehensively reading
this stalwart encyclopedia will render great knowledge but not the greatest
of all knowlege: intellect molded by wisdom.

2. "The Know-It-All" is a fantastic book. It is a stupendous intellectual
adventure. I highly recommend Jacobs' book to everyone who is in love
with knowledge and education. A. J. Jacobs in the final analysis proves
that although a person may attempt to become a "know-it-all" they actually
become a "know a lot" person. In regards to the seemingly infinite amount
of knowlege still unsurveyed by human beings in the universe all of we
humans are as the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates asserted: "All we
know is that we know nothing".
Jacobs' herculean encyclopedic reading accomplishment causes me to
reminisce about the time back in the 1970's when I completely read the
"World Book Encyclopedia". I did not own the "Encyclopedia Britannica" at
that time. If I had I would have exhaustively read it. I also read the
complete fifty four volume set of Dr. Mortimer Adler's compilation of the
"Great Books of the Western World". In addition I totally read the massively
thick "The Encyclopedia of Philosophy" that was edited by Paul Edwards.
Cogitating about the academic contents of three encyclopedic sets was
enough intellectual food for thought to boggle the mind.
I implore you to read "The Know-It-All". Even if you should never
attempt the intellectual mountain climbing ascent that Jacobs did at least
you will have read of Jacobs' scaling the Mt. Everest peak of book facts
and viewing the awe-inspiring panoramic scene from the pinnacle.
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