The Know-It-All   by A. J. Jacobs

May 2007     A Spontaneous gift from my Dear Pamela Fiancee.

It's a book about a man who sets forth on a quest to read all 33,000 pages of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. It's filled with useless facts about what sounds giraffes make, Etruscan writing, and that lightening comes FROM the ground, and goes TO the clouds. Well, Pamela found my personal store of useless trivia similar: (There are only two surviving Monotreme species, or "Cloacatier" in German. The Giraffe's tongue is Purple. DNA stands for Deoxirybo-Neuclaeic-Acid. (Not that I can SPELL that word. But I can say it!)) Anyhow, the point is: this book reminded Pamela of me, and thought I would enjoy it. And she was right!

It seems like a bit of a mad basis for a novel, but it worked. This is rather more than just a collection of strange facts. There is a story going on, and there are at least three developed characters in the book. The book is not a compendium of trivia; It's a novel about a man Reading that compendium of trivia. And this makes the strange collection of facts much more... accessible. It is not given in the form Fact#1. Fact#2. Fact#3. Rather it's given as this person's reactions and thoughts about each little thing. (for the most part; There are also times when something strange is just thrown in with little connection to the story. -and yet, more often it does have a connection, which is just so... subtle, and complementary, that it doesn't need a direct view from the protagonist.

The plot was refreshing; It was not a standard "falling in love", or "realising life's worth" or "seeing what my life is truly like" story. It was a happily married man, wishing he was more intelligent, somewhat losing touch with his social skills, and wanting, most of all, to have a child. In the end, two of these things have changed or resolved. The other two stay the same.

I had a lovely time seeing how he linked what he was reading in the Encyclopaedia with what was happening in his life. It was so well done, I have to wonder if this is a work of fiction, or if it documents the true experiences of the author. (Or a combination of the two: That he truly DID read the entire Encyclopaedia, but never actually went onto "Who wants to be a Millionaire".

Quite, quite good. Enjoyable book.

A small PS: It seems that there is actually DEBATE about the colour of a Giraffe's Tongue. But at least one of the camps says that it's purple. (A very dark, blacking purple. Not a violet colour.)