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)

I know!

Even after all that reading, the moral of the story is “I know a whole lot of stuff, but relatively, I know not much. Many a chuckle in the piece!

What a great story

I had considered doing the same and I am certainly glad I didnt start. After reading this book you have an appreciation for the feat, you understand the author, and you appreciate the humanity of someone who does something this monumental.

Hilarious Quest for Knowledge

Would you listen to The Know-It-All again? Why?

Probably after some time has passed, it's an interesting journey through randomness.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It made me chuckle at multiple points. Not knowing what the next entry to be covered is makes for a highly entertaining read.

Any additional comments?

If you're looking for any substantial information or a concise, coherent story, this isn't your book. If you're interested in a lighthearted journey through the alphabetically arranged entries of the Encyclopedia Britannica, this is your book.

Hilarious and informative book!!

What made the experience of listening to The Know-It-All the most enjoyable?

The smart wit, and Geoffrey Cantor's narration was on point! I was laughing so hard my roommates thought I was crying hah!

What other book might you compare The Know-It-All to and why?

The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner for writing style and wit. But I only read Geography, never listened to it.

What about Geoffrey Cantor’s performance did you like?

His animation is great, and his accents cracked me up!! AJ Jacobs is an incredible and hilarious writer, and Cantor's delivery really did the audiobook justice!

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Oh yeah, I could NOT get enough. And now all my friends are on board with it, it only took a few minutes of listening for them to get hooked!

Lover of Facts

If you don't enjoy random facts and learning, this book is definitely not for you... But I definitely loved it.

Amusing at first, then it got tedious

The book recites fact after fact with asides involving Jacobs' life (he and his wife are trying to conceive) and his visits with smart people. Well, visits with people who probably have high IQs. Some of these visits are interesting, most aren't. He goes to Alex Trebek's house and mistakes him for a gardener. That might be a good anecdote for him to share at a dinner party, but it's superfluous here. There is no overarching theme to this. No insights into the nature of intelligence. No questioning whether the ability to remember and recall factoids makes one smart. This was a stunt, and while impressive, it didn't merit a book this long.

I like trivia, so I found this entertaining at times, but I'd rather have just read a trivia book that was exclusively about trivia.

Very Entertaining

It’s a fun book to listen to, very entertaining and fun. I truly enjoy the way the book way read.

Geoffrey Cantor is Distracting

A.J. Jacobs' books are amazing! He's down-to-earth and approachable in his writing and his self-narrated audiobooks are incredible. But unfortunately, this book is read by Geoffrey Cantor, who enjoys awkward inflections and silly voices WAY too much. At one point, he quotes F. Scott Fitzgerald in a British accent. He follows up that performance by giving Jacobs' old English teacher the voice of a poor Nicolas Cage impersonator. If there's a version of this audiobook read by the author out there somewhere, please give me that instead. Please...

Very enjoyable

When I first heard about this book,I was mildly interested at the thought of someone reading through the Encyclopedia Britannica from A-Z (being what Jacobs calls an "encyclopedia dabbler" myself), but feared it would just be a pretentious rehash of what he'd read.

Then, a friend told me how much she'd enjoyed and laughed witt another of Jacobs' books, The Year of Living Biblically. Realizing then that The Know It All would be humorous and informative, I decided I had to listen to it.

What a pleasure! True, the narrator has a nasal voice but as you get into the book, you realize this and his delivery are perfectly fitted for the book.

I learned some facts -- but mostly enjoyed his humor and attitude toward life and learning.

In fact, this is one of the best books I've listened to here at Audible.

Enjoyable

I was skeptical about this book after reading a few bad reviews. I'm currently enjoying listening to this book. I'm glad I decided to ignore the bad reviews or I would have missed out on an entertaining book.