The Know-It-All

Synopsis

NPR contributor A.J. Jacobs chronicles his hilarious and seemingly impossible quest to read the Encyclopedia Britannica from A-Z.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 Encyclopedia Britannica, all 33,000 pages, all 44 million words.The mission began in October 2002, with the word "a-ak." The world 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.