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Reviews
The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World by A.J. Jacobs
applegnreads's review
3.0
I think I would have given it 4 stars if I had read it a chapter a day because it's almost a bit much to just sit and read. Still I enjoyed it and feel a little bit like I learned some things along the way too. I still feel bad for his wife.
chuskeyreads's review
2.0
I believe reading the actual Encyclopedia Britannica would've been far more interesting. Besides, I don't need to read Jacobs' opinion about each article anymore than I need to read Cliff's Notes for The Hunger Games (Actually, CN are simply literary analyses written by college professors, many of whom teach at the University of Nebraska). Not to mention, I gathered from a few comments in the book that Jacobs doesn't think too highly of the South.
I read a few reviews about how hysterically funny this guy is as a writer - nope, didn't see it. Throughout the book, Jacobs' humor felt forced as though he wrote the summary of an encyclopedia entry and then interjected a story or two about his family - disclosing his and his wife's issues with conceiving a child, playing Simon Says with his nieces and nephews, aspiring to impress his dad (an accomplished writer), and the obvious jealousy towards his brother-in-law, who is evidently the real<\i> know-it-all and the one who probably should've written this book.
I read a few reviews about how hysterically funny this guy is as a writer - nope, didn't see it. Throughout the book, Jacobs' humor felt forced as though he wrote the summary of an encyclopedia entry and then interjected a story or two about his family - disclosing his and his wife's issues with conceiving a child, playing Simon Says with his nieces and nephews, aspiring to impress his dad (an accomplished writer), and the obvious jealousy towards his brother-in-law, who is evidently the real<\i> know-it-all and the one who probably should've written this book.
littlewitchreading's review
3.0
3.5- had some humorous moments but all in all it took way too long to get through for a book that’s only 369 pages. It moved at a glacial pace. Also and this is nothing to do with the author but my copy of this book had more spelling and grammar mistakes than I have ever come across in a book before. I found this irritating.
alidottie's review
4.0
One thing that was great about this book was that you can start it and put it aside to read other things and go back to it because of the way it is written. I totally enjoyed all the odd bits of knowledge and information coiled around Jacobs' own life.
loujoseph's review
2.0
pretty annoying book, perfect for npr-lovers and smug types, i finished this one more out of spite for myself than anything.
sposnick's review
4.0
Quite liked this book. About a man who reads the entire Encyclopaedia Britannica, and how it tied in with his life at the time. A nice storyline tied in with lots of neat facts. Kind of made me want to read the encyclopedia myself actually.
kalahcakes's review against another edition
3.0
I liked it, because I love information - specifically, consolidated, short facts. But this was obviously his early writing, because I just didn't enjoy the style as much as I did in his Biblical Living book. Some jokes were forced and awkward, corny in a bad way. But all in all...I thank this book for making me feel a tad smarter (or a tad more annoying, deepending on how you fill your glass).
bookbabe222's review
4.0
I would give this 3.5 stars, but i'll round up. I liked that you got to learn interesting facts along with him but I did feel that it dragged on a little long and the ending was a bit abrupt. Overall, it was entertaining but not a favorite.
katiebtatton's review
3.0
This book is one of the many "Try something new for a year and write a (mostly) non-fiction book about your experience" genre that was so popular a few years ago. Partly out of pride and partly to make his father proud (and partly to boost his neurotic self esteem), the author sets out to read the Encylopaedia Brittanica. The book is set up with one chapter for each letter, and the story is woven with backstory and odd facts throughout entries the author finds under its given letter.
lanica's review
4.0
I enjoyed reading this book, and I walked away with a few favorite quotes that I wouldn't have found otherwise. For example, Jeremy Bentham's quote about animal rights, "The question is not, can they reason, nor can they talk, but can they suffer?" I'm not a vegetarian, nor an animal rights activist, so there's no surprise that I hadn't heard that quote before. Yet I walk away from this book glad that I read it and feeling that I actually learned some things from it.
A. J. Jacobs doesn't take himself too seriously and he does have a grasp on how to write in a way that todays culture will understand. He breaks the book up into letters and entries, like the Encyclopaedia Britannica itself. He tells readers about himself in entries that apply to his life or those that remind him of events in his past. It's interesting to see how the project consumed his life, leaking into everyday conversations and into his work. I have to say that I'm really impressed by his wife. She's a saint!
A. J. Jacobs doesn't take himself too seriously and he does have a grasp on how to write in a way that todays culture will understand. He breaks the book up into letters and entries, like the Encyclopaedia Britannica itself. He tells readers about himself in entries that apply to his life or those that remind him of events in his past. It's interesting to see how the project consumed his life, leaking into everyday conversations and into his work. I have to say that I'm really impressed by his wife. She's a saint!