The Know-it-all by A J Jacobs

The Know-it-all by A J Jacobs

Part memoir and part education (or lack thereof), The Know-It-All chronicles NPR contributor A.J. Jacobs's hilarious, enlightening, and seemingly impossible quest to read the Encyclopaedia Britannica from A to Z.

33,000 PAGES
44 MILION WORDS
10 BILION YEARS OF HISTORY
1 OBSESED MAN

To fill the ever-widening gaps in his Ivy League education, A.J. Jacobs sets for himself the daunting task of reading all thirty-two volumes of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. His wife, Julie, tells him it's a waste of time, his friends believe he is losing his mind, and his father, a brilliant attorney who had once attempted the same feat and quit somewhere around Borneo, is encouraging but unconvinced.

With self-deprecating wit and a disarming frankness, The Know-It-All recounts the unexpected and comically disruptive effects Operation Encyclopedia has on every part of Jacobs's life -- from his newly minted marriage to his complicated relationship with his father and the rest of his charmingly eccentric New York family to his day job as an editor at Esquire. Jacobs's project tests the outer limits of his stamina and forces him to explore the real meaning of intelligence as he endeavors to join Mensa, win a spot on Jeopardy , and absorb 33,000 pages of learning. On his journey he stumbles upon some of the strangest, funniest, and most profound facts about every topic under the sun, all while battling fatigue, ridicule, and the paralyzing fear that attends his first real-life responsibility -- the impending birth of his first child.

The Know-It-All is an ingenious, mightily entertaining memoir of one man's intellect, neuroses, and obsessions, and a struggle between the all-consuming quest for factual knowledge and the undeniable gift of hard-won wisdom.

A. J. Jacobs is an Associate Professor and the Director of Graduate Studies in East Carolina University's Department of Sociology. He was an Assistant Professor in the University of Cincinnati's School of Planning, a Visiting Associate Professor in Hosei University's Faculty of Business (in Tokyo, Japan), and a Visiting Assistant Professor in Michigan State University's Urban Planning Program. He received his Ph.D. in Sociology-Urban Studies from Michigan State University and his Master's in Regional Planning from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

SKU	Nicht verfügbar
ISBN 13	9780743250603
ISBN 10	0743250605
Titel	The Know-it-all
Autor	A J Jacobs
Buchzustand	Nicht verfügbar
Bindungsart	Hardback
Verlag	Simon & Schuster
Erscheinungsjahr	2004-09-21
Seitenanzahl	386
Preise	Short-listed for Book Sense Book of the Year Award (Adult Nonfiction) 2005
Hinweis auf dem Einband	Die Abbildung des Buches dient nur Illustrationszwecken, die tatsächliche Bindung, das Cover und die Auflage können sich davon unterscheiden.
Hinweis	Nicht verfügbar