A review by jcpdiesel21
The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World by A.J. Jacobs

4.0

A thoroughly enjoyable book, and probably my favorite by A.J. Jacobs. I love how his large quests for knowledge always entail smaller side projects that are equally as interesting and enhance and deepen his projects. I liked how some of his entries were brief and to the point, with a few facts followed by a witty observation or joke, and some were lengthy, relating directly back to his own life, however loosely. It was interesting to see how Jacobs' relationships with his brother-in-law Eric and his father evolved while he was immersed in this project, and I appreciated his candid and humorous comments about speed reading and memory improvement classes that turned out to be scams. His experiences spending time with Mensa members, chatting with Alex Trebek and attempting to get on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire were definite highlights. I'm not sure how relevant a quest to read an entire set of encyclopedias is today, given how much we now rely on the internet for instant information, but it sure was entertaining to read about.