A.J. Jacobs’ The Know-It-All

From Cover: “Part memoir and part education (or lack thereof), The Know-It-All chronicles NPR contributor A.J. Jacobs’s hilarious, enlightening, and seemingly impossible quest to read the Encyclopaedia Britannica from A to Z.  To fill the ever-widening gaps in his Ivy-League education, A.J. Jacobs sets for himself the daunting task of reading all thirty-two volumes of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. His wife, Julie, tells him it’s a waste of time, his friends believe he is losing his mind, and his father, a brilliant attorney who had once attempted the same feat and quit somewhere around Borneo, is encouraging but unconvinced.”

The summary was actually longer than that, but I thought it was a bit long-winded, and cut it short. What an amazing book, though! It was hilarious, and I learned so many random tidbits that had me shocked.  I have no clue how Jacobs managed to remember so much, but even reading his VERY condensed version, I’ve forgotten a ton. I’ll never forget the experience, though. Jacobs has a knack for getting the reader to laugh out loud. When talking about the article on Igor Stravinsky, he says the following:

“I love this. I can’t believe that less than a century ago, a ballet with some discordant notes could cause an actual riot. (If they heard my composition, by the way, they would have burned the theater down.) Nowadays, audience members at the ballet rarely riot. They are often too busy falling asleep. Or if they are really upset, they leave after the first act to get a nice pasta dinner somewhere. But they don’t riot.

It makes me feel nostalgic for when you could shock people with art. It was so easy back then. A couple of notes too close on the scale, a litle sex, and presto, outrage! Now, good luck shocking the audience. You go to the movies and watch teenagers having sex with parakeets or whatever, and you just won’t be treated to an uproar, a commotion, or even a man standing on a chair. Being a true artist used to be a lot easier, not counting that tuberculosis business.”

Not only did Jacobs make learning facts interesting, he also managed to provide random insights into his personal life that made the book even more interesting. I would recommend the book to any random fact lovers, or non-fiction fans, in general. I loved it.