33,000 PAGES
44 MILLION WORDS
10 BILLION YEARS OF HISTORY
1 OBSESSED MAN
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
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.
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