Books › The Know-It-All
The Know-It-All
One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World
First published 2004 · 728 pages
A hilarious, trivia-stuffed romp through the alphabet that accidentally discovers the difference between being smart and being wise.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like being cornered at a party by the most fascinating, mildly neurotic trivia buff you have ever met and actually enjoying every minute of it. The pace is brisk and highly snackable, driven by the alphabetical structure that makes it dangerously easy to read just one more letter. Beneath the relentless barrage of bizarre historical facts and obscure scientific anomalies lies a surprisingly cozy and earnest atmosphere. The narrator's self-deprecating humor keeps the tone light, even as he grapples with deep-seated intellectual insecurities and the shifting dynamics of his eccentric family. It is a delightful, laugh-out-loud experience that ultimately trades the cold rigidity of encyclopedic knowledge for the warm, messy reality of genuine human wisdom.
- Mood
- lighthearted
- inquisitive
- mildly neurotic
- cozy
- Tone
- wry
- self-deprecating
- curious
- humorous
- earnest
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- knowledge versus wisdom · intellectual insecurity · family dynamics · the absurdity of trivia · humility
- The writing
- Conversational, witty, and highly accessible, structured in bite-sized, fact-filled entries that read like a chat with a clever friend.
- The arc
- Moves from a neurotic, ego-driven stunt to a surprisingly tender realization about the limits of trivia and the value of human connection.
- Who it's for
- Trivia nerds and fans of humorous, immersive stunt-memoirs who appreciate a narrator willing to make himself the punchline.
Content notes
- aging parents
- mild medical anxiety
About the book
"Part memoir and part education (or lack thereof), The Know-It-All chronicles NPR contributor A. J. Jacob's hilarious, enlightening, and seemingly impossible quest to read the Encyclopedia Britannica from A to Z." "The Know-It-All recounts the unexpected and comically descriptive effects Operation Encyclopedia has on every part of Jacobs' 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' 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."--BOOK JACKET.
Description from Open Library.
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