The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World

A.J. Jacobs assigned himself the seemingly impossible task of reading through all of the Encyclopedia Britannica entries, which from A to Z amounts to around 33,000 pages. The Know-It-All is about this challenge and how it affected all aspects of Jacobs' life, from his marriage to his relationship with his father (who also had tried to read all the Encyclopedia entries and gave up somewhere in the B section). Jacobs tells the story of his journey through his own encyclopedic entries, sometimes discussing the entry topic, but mostly meditating on his personal life and his relationships. This is a funny yet tender book, relatable despite being centered around a feat that seems almost impossible.

(This book may contain a small, black sharpie mark on the bottom edge, so that it can't be returned to a different wholesaler.)