The Know-It-All
by A. J. Jacobs | Nonfiction | This book has not been rated.
ISBN: 0743250605 Global Overview for this book
ISBN: 0743250605 Global Overview for this book
2 journalers for this copy...
Picked up The Book Thing in Baltimore, MD.
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.
Registered in Rockville, Maryland, USA.
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.
Registered in Rockville, Maryland, USA.
Journal Entry 2 by BCinDC at Gaithersburg Book Festival in Gaithersburg, Maryland USA on Tuesday, April 26, 2022
Released 1 yr ago (5/21/2022 UTC) at Gaithersburg Book Festival in Gaithersburg, Maryland USA
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
Members of BCinDC will be hosting a space at the Gaithersburg Book Festival where there will be a large number of books available for FREE!
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Welcome to BookCrossing!
Making a journal entry here lets me know the book has been found and is safe in your hands. The book is yours now! Read it, give it to a friend, pass it on, or keep it forever--it's your choice.
If you pass it on to someone or leave it "in the wild" for someone else to find, please make another journal entry or release notes here to explain that it's travelling to find another home.
You can remain anonymous on the website or join BookCrossing. Joining is free, safe, and spam free and you'll get an e-mail every time a new person finds this book. You'll be able to watch it move around and find out what other readers thought of it.
We hope you enjoy the book. Happy reading!