OK, so we’ve all had strange and outrageous notions from time to time.
Even strange literary notions. Who among us hasn’t contemplated an Everest-style achievement such as reading the Bible, the dictionary, “War and Peace” or Bill Clinton’s “My Life”?
Just such an obsession took hold of author and Esquire editor A.J. Jacobs some years ago.
An admitted television and pop culture addict, he was starting to feel stupid. So he decided to read a gargantuan repository of knowledge: the entire Encyclopaedia Britannica.
The difference between Jacobs and us is that he followed through. He slogged through all 32 volumes. All 33,000 pages. All 44 million words.
Because he has decided to share the experience with the rest of the world — huh? a book about reading a book? — how fortunate that he is such an engaging fellow.
“The Know-It-All: One Man’s Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World” has to be one of the most entertaining and informative book reports in existence.
It is charming, humorous, instructive, fascinating, even kind of inspirational. Jacobs has shared so many encyclopedia tidbits in this book that I want to go out and read it myself. Except that he has shared so many encyclopedic tidbits I don’t have to!
Wanna know what a-ak is? Or who really invented the toilet (not a guy whose last name is Crapper, as popular lore would have it). Or which were some of the most bloodthirsty rulers in history? Hungry for details about the sex lives of various fish and insects? Here they are.
But Jacobs’ book is more than that. He puts it all into the context of his life, and a text that could have been utterly dry winds up charming us with Jacobs’ honesty and vulnerability.
Jacobs is courageous enough to risk looking stupid by sharing his quirks and insecurities, and he wins the gambit. He comes across as nothing short of endearing.
There’s also a compelling subplot: Jacobs and his wife, Julie, have been trying for more than a year to get pregnant. Through the A’s, the B’s, the L’s, the M’s … they persist.
HighBridge has produced two audio versions on CD, a 15-hour full-length recording ($39.95) and a 7.5-hour abridgment ($29.95), both read by Broadway and TV actor Geoffrey Cantor.
The book is easy to abridge. Most of the encyclopedic entries are separate, self-contained riffs, so just excise a few and you’re finished.
I have a few bones to pick with Cantor too. He drove me crazy saying “thee” instead of “the.” And “aaa” (as in “hay”) instead of “a” (as in “above”). That said, Cantor is a comedic master, reveling in Jacobs’ wit and humor. Jacobs will include a stilted excerpt by a long-dead French author, say, and there’s Cantor carrying on with an exaggerated French accent and a hilarious “hauteur.”
Overly cute? Sometimes. But I loved it. It’s kind of like egghead stand-up comedy.
As Jacobs progresses through the alphabet, he joins Mensa (despite flunking the test), humiliates himself at a crossword puzzlers convention and tests his friendships with his constant citing of odd facts.
But they stuck with him, and so did I. Happily.
