The Know-It-All

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

By: A. J. Jacobs

Narrated by: Geoffrey Cantor

Length: 15 hrs and 25 mins

Publisher's summary

Early in his career, A.J. Jacobs put his Ivy League education to work at Entertainment Weekly. He emerged five years later knowing which stars have fake boobs, which stars have toupees, which have both, and not much else. This realization led Jacobs on a life-changing quest: to read the entire contents of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, all 33,000 pages, all 44 million words.

The mission began in October 2002, with the word "a-ak". The word launches hilarious misadventures through 32 volumes, as Jacobs accumulates useful and less-so knowledge, and along the way finds a deep connection with his father, examines the nature of knowledge vs. intelligence, and learns how to be rather annoying at cocktail parties.

The Know-It-All is an ingenious, mightily entertaining memoir of one man's intellect, neuroses, and obsessions, and a soul-searching, ultimately touching struggle between the obsessive quest for factual knowledge and the undeniable gift of hard-won wisdom.

©2004 A.J. Jacobs (P)2004 HighBridge Company

Critic reviews

"One of the book's strongest parts is its laugh-out-loud humor." (Publishers Weekly)
"Sidesplitting." (Time Out New York)

Funny and touching

I started listening to it on the bus, but had to give it up because people kept looking at me like I was a lunatic when I would burst into uncontrollable laughter. Jacobs is laugh out loud funny, which I expected, but he was also sometimes touching, which I didn't. Most of the book looks at the absurdity of the world, intellectualism, and Jacobs himself, but in some of it, he makes serious observations about the human condition. I feel a little wiser and a lot happier having read it.

Very fun book

After reading all the negative reviews, I have to weigh in in favor of this book. This book is more introspection on the life of Jacobs than an academic discussion of the encyclopedia (thankfully). Jacobs is not beyond poking fun at himself while he examines his own life in an uninhibited way. I thought the narration was great -- the occasional mispronunciations didn't bother me. Cantor's great accents more than made up for them.

For General knowledge junkies

If trivial information and "I did not know that", make you smile your going to love this book. I have always looked at the encyclopaedia with awe and fear but this book makes it fun to delve into those obscure facts that enlighten and surprise.

Detailed yet entertaining

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

This is a highly amusing read, weaving arcane factoids with the author's quest and things going on with his wife and his job at Esquire. So much fun.

Fun Book. Fantastic Narrator

Promising idea. I wasn't sure you can actually get a whole book out of it, but apparently you can. It's really just as the summary suggests, guy reads the Encyclopedia Britannica, gives all kinds of interesting facts that he reads about, along with personal stories, and his journey to become smarter.
Interesting read. I've listened to the audio version of the book on Audible, and the narrator is the best narrator I've listened to. he made the book a joy to listen to.

For Trivia Lovers

This book is interesting, especially for those who appreciate trivia. It's fascinating how in everyday life, the author was able to bring up relevant facts that he had read in the Encyclopedia Britannica. The only drawback is the author can be a bit neurotic.

This was ok

He told the story well.

Not sure what I was expecting here. This was ok.

Come back soon, A. J.

Although there are lots of obscure and interesting snippets from the encyclopaedia, this book is really an engaging autobiography. Jacobs' style is conversational and liberally sprinkled with humor. If he had read the book himself, he could not have done it better than Geoffrey Cantor did ... which is probably why Cantor did it.
The sessions I spent listening to The Know-It-All came to seem like personal conversations with a close friend. Now that I've reached the end, I'm going to miss you, A. J. Come back soon.

thoroughly enjoyable

I found this book extremely informative and entertaining. The writer doesn't just list everything he read in the encyclopaedia.He recounts how the things he learned, directly affected his life. And he does so very well. His account is riddled with subplots and characters played by family members. I love how the knowledge he gains is put towards his desperate attempts to impregnate his wife. I enjoyed the effects this project had on his family and friends and even work colleagues. There is so much to learn from this book, a second read will help retain some of that knowledge. But the first time is very enjoyable none the less.
The writer has a great sense of humour, a little bit cheesy at times, but that's expected considering his career. And it's always great when the writer narrates his own work. Over enthusiastic at times, but it works for the piece. Very entertaining and informative. Lots of fun, very clever, well wrapped up in the end, and you'll get a lot out of it. Nice one.

I'm smarter no too.

Enjoyed the journey. I feel like I've read the EB too. Didn't appreciate the bad language!