Hey, Now There's an Idea!
A couple of weeks ago I finished reading A. J. Jacobs' The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World and I must say I loved it. The concept of the book is quite simple one man, one quest, 33 000 pages. It made me wonder why I haven't thought of doing this myself.
Jacobs thought he would challenge himself to read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica in one year in his quest to become the world's smartest man. The idea came from his fathers attempt to perform the feat of reading the whole encyclopedia from "A" through "Zywiec" but didn't have the stamina A. J. had to complete the task. I've often wondered how much one could get if one decided to read the whole Britannica tomb but never thought of reading the whole thing. When I started reading this I thought the idea was a little odd and wondered why more people haven't done this. Then I began to wonder why I haven't done this. And thought this would be a great task to try and accomplish after I've finished my stint over seas and settle some place.
While writing this book Jacobs tells his whole story while he attempted to read everything enclosed in those hallowed covers of the great Britannica. Including a previous interview with Alex Trebek the host of Jeopardy! Which disqualifies him from ever being a contestant on the show. To his appearance on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, and doesn't fair very well (I think I may have even seen the episode). The book is often witty, especially when he gets into a "who knows more" contest with his brother-in-law. Throughout this challenge the Jacobs' family is confronted with another challenge...becoming pregnant, which brings about several more laughs.
Jacobs has attempted another quest and his book for this quest has come out recently, this time he thought it would be great to live one year living by all the laws encompassed in the Bible (The Year of Living Biblically). Lisa Guidariani interviewed Jacobs for Estella's Revenge this month. The interview can be found here. I enjoyed this book but I don't think I'm all that keen on reading the new one, but if it were to land in my hands I'm sure I would eventually open the book and get it read. The concept of this book isn't as interesting to me, so, I'll just leave it.
I must conclude by saying that The Know-It-All is a fantastic book and it was often difficult to finish. To top it off it has given me an idea for some heavy reading in the future, when I don't have to get all the books back to Canada.
Jacobs thought he would challenge himself to read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica in one year in his quest to become the world's smartest man. The idea came from his fathers attempt to perform the feat of reading the whole encyclopedia from "A" through "Zywiec" but didn't have the stamina A. J. had to complete the task. I've often wondered how much one could get if one decided to read the whole Britannica tomb but never thought of reading the whole thing. When I started reading this I thought the idea was a little odd and wondered why more people haven't done this. Then I began to wonder why I haven't done this. And thought this would be a great task to try and accomplish after I've finished my stint over seas and settle some place.
While writing this book Jacobs tells his whole story while he attempted to read everything enclosed in those hallowed covers of the great Britannica. Including a previous interview with Alex Trebek the host of Jeopardy! Which disqualifies him from ever being a contestant on the show. To his appearance on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, and doesn't fair very well (I think I may have even seen the episode). The book is often witty, especially when he gets into a "who knows more" contest with his brother-in-law. Throughout this challenge the Jacobs' family is confronted with another challenge...becoming pregnant, which brings about several more laughs.
Jacobs has attempted another quest and his book for this quest has come out recently, this time he thought it would be great to live one year living by all the laws encompassed in the Bible (The Year of Living Biblically). Lisa Guidariani interviewed Jacobs for Estella's Revenge this month. The interview can be found here. I enjoyed this book but I don't think I'm all that keen on reading the new one, but if it were to land in my hands I'm sure I would eventually open the book and get it read. The concept of this book isn't as interesting to me, so, I'll just leave it.
I must conclude by saying that The Know-It-All is a fantastic book and it was often difficult to finish. To top it off it has given me an idea for some heavy reading in the future, when I don't have to get all the books back to Canada.
