THE KNOW-IT-ALL

The Know-It-All: One Man’s Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World, by A.J. Jacobs: A man who read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica and wrote a memoir about it. Reading the encyclopedia is totally something I’d resolve to do (but then fail), so I could sympathize with his quest. Now I don’t have to do it because this book summarized the experience and let me pick up all the good trivia. I liked that it was even organized in alphabetical order, but the encyclopedia material is interwoven with scenes from his life while he’s reading it, and various adventures and investigations into the nature of intelligence. Very addictive and neatly done.