The Know-It-All
  • Published: 3 April 2006
  • ISBN: 9780099481744
  • Imprint: Arrow
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 400
  • RRP: $36.99
Categories:

The Know-It-All

One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World

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A. J. Jacobs tells the story of his bizarre, hilarious and seemingly impossible quest to read the Encyclopaedia Britannica from A to Z.

On leaving school or university, you feel pretty pleased with yourself. You've learnt a lot, your'e well-read and you know a whole bunch of obscure facts guaranteed at some point to appear in the questions on Mastermind or University Challenge. Then you get a job, and ten years later youre more eloquent and eager to argue about Britney and Big Brother than Beckett and the Brontes. Sound familiar?

Well it happened to AJ Jacobs too. As an editor at Esquire, Jacobs had built up a rather impressive knowledge of celebrity trivia - and the cure was going to take a long time. While others might take to reading a broadsheet at the weekend, Jacobs chose to read the Encyclopaedia Britannica. All 33,000 pages of it.

Bill Bryson meets Schott's Original Miscellany meets Woody Allen. Part assemblage of fascinating trivia, part journey through adulthood, all laugh-out-loud funny.
  • Published: 3 April 2006
  • ISBN: 9780099481744
  • Imprint: Arrow
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 400
  • RRP: $36.99
Categories:

About the author

A J Jacobs

A. J. Jacobs is the editor of What It Feels Like and the author of The Two Kings: Jesus and Elvis, America Offline, and Fractured Fairy Tales. He is a senior editor of Esquire and lives in New York City with his wife Julie.

portrait photo of A J Jacobs

Also by A J Jacobs

Drop Dead Healthy
The Year of Living Biblically
My Experimental Life
See all

Praise for The Know-It-All

'The Know-It-All is a terrific book. It's a lot shorter than the encyclopedia, and funnier, and you'll remember more of it. Plus, if it falls off the shelf onto your head, you'll live.' P.J. O'Rourke

'A jape of a book...with Jacobs...coming across as a slightly younger and Jewish Bill Bryson. Some of his quips are worthy even of Woody Allen... Hilarious' Guardian

'Frequently funny and sometimes downright hilarious, but this is also an unexpectedly moving book.' Daily Mail

'The Know-It-All is one of the most informative humorous books and one of the funniest collections of information that I have seen in a long time. (Note to publishers: that's the sentence you can put on the back of the next edition if you like).' Daily Express

'For those who enjoy learning about some of the stranger facts about the world in which we live and who appreciate having a guide of some charm, The Know-It-All will be something of a treat.' Sunday Times