Reviews
The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World by A.J. Jacobs
dietsmarrissjohnson's review against another edition
informative
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
4.25
wayfaring_witch's review against another edition
4.0
A fun and engaging book. The author, A.J. Jacobs, reads the entire Encyclopedia Britannica and writes a book about his experience. I nabbed this as an audio book from my library randomly, and I have no regrets. Throughout the book I was oddly drawn into Jacob's quest and how he interacted with the world around him because of it.
We peek into interesting family relationships, a meeting with Alex Trebek, the Britannica headquarters, and even behind scenes at Who Wants to be a Millionaire. He was easy to relate to, and your journey with him gives you a renewed appreciation for knowledge.
I enjoyed this book, and I look forward to reading his second book: [b:The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible|5802897|The Year of Living Biblically One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible|A.J. Jacobs|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1267842931s/5802897.jpg|2325789]
We peek into interesting family relationships, a meeting with Alex Trebek, the Britannica headquarters, and even behind scenes at Who Wants to be a Millionaire. He was easy to relate to, and your journey with him gives you a renewed appreciation for knowledge.
I enjoyed this book, and I look forward to reading his second book: [b:The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible|5802897|The Year of Living Biblically One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible|A.J. Jacobs|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1267842931s/5802897.jpg|2325789]
prettydeadlady's review against another edition
5.0
Excellent, funny, quirky little book on a man's journey while reading the Encyclopedia Brittanica.
emflibrarian's review against another edition
4.0
This is a great summer read. Aj jacobs is hilarious and you pick up bits of information that you really don't need to know but stick with you. The only negative, and it's not that negative, is he gets a little carried away with his wife conceiving. However, it's a funny, light read.
coreyinscoe's review against another edition
4.0
This was a fun read for a couple of reasons. Jacobs is just a funny writer and he seems to latch on to the same kind of goofy random facts that would stick out to me. Also, you learn a lot of random crap that you might not know.
This book isn't just about his reading of the encyclopedia. It's about his life during that year: trying to have a baby, work, his marriage, his family, etc. It felt like a diary more than anything, which was nice. Some anecdotes could have been left out, but I think this book was more for himself than for anyone else.
Highly recommended if you're a nerd like me and like reading about other nerds.
This book isn't just about his reading of the encyclopedia. It's about his life during that year: trying to have a baby, work, his marriage, his family, etc. It felt like a diary more than anything, which was nice. Some anecdotes could have been left out, but I think this book was more for himself than for anyone else.
Highly recommended if you're a nerd like me and like reading about other nerds.
blevins's review against another edition
3.0
Encyclopedia as memoir in this early book by AJ Jacobs. He was successful in bridging real life and real information but the book lacked depth--hard to achieve possibly due to the organization of the book through selected passages of the encyclopedia as Jacobs read it. A daunting undertaking with clever moments but too many tangents on topics that didn't interest me in the slightest.
k8iedid's review against another edition
1.0
Had this one in the bathroom for the better part of a year - the perfect book to pick up and read a bit in short intervals. The anecdotes were pretty entertaining, but I think I just got tired of the schtick of a year of this and that, so I gave up. Sorry AJ!
amyma's review against another edition
3.0
I enjoyed this book a lot at first, but then I started to feel like I was reading the encyclopedia. It was pretty good overall and I did learn a few things, but not so sure I'd recommend it. It seems more of a read entries here and there type of book rather than read straight through.