Book Review: 'The Know-it-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World'
This is a greatly enjoyable book. This was my second time reading it, actually. Hobbitsister did a review of it, so I'm not quite sure what else to write, so suffice it to say that A. J. Jacobs did a wonderful job of, as Jon Stewart put it, '[putting] out a less complete version of the encyclopedia.' It is so stinking funny! He very much has my sense of humor (yet another reason I think I'm Jewish).Here are a couple examples:
'glottal stop': In phonetics, this is a momentary stoppage of the airstream, caused by closing the glottis. When those with Brooklyn and Cockney accents pronounce 'bottle' as bah-ul, they are using the glottal stop. There's a cruel little irony here - those who use the glottal stop can't even pronounce it correctly. They say 'glah-ul stop.' I wonder if the people who named the glottal stop did this on purpose, the scamps.
'Glyndwr': A district in Wales. Please buy a vowel.
'Montaigne': I like this 16th-century French writer quite a bit...I like the story of how Marie de Gournay - a French intellectual at the time - fainted from excitement when she read Montaigne's work for the first time. She fainted from reading. What a great image. We've become far too jaded. I've been intrigued, bored, titillated, annoyed, amazed, but I've never even come close to fainting while reading any book. Which is sad...
posted by melilotnfosco | 7:11 PM
21 Comments:
Have you ever fainted while reading a book, mel? That "buy a vowel" thing is perfect for us wheel watchers. ;) I also like the glottal stop point... I've always thought that about the words stuttering and stutterer -- I'd think those are pretty hard to say for people who stutter, but this is an even better example. But I have to admit I think that if I invented words, I'd want to do the same as those "scamps." :D
So did he actually read the entire encyclopedia? B/c that's just crazy.
yes he did - it took him a year (he gave himself a deadline)
i would love to be able to say that i fainted whilst reading a book, but sadly, i haven't :(
i've fainted from many things, but not yet from reading. wouldn't that be exciting?
I've never fainted.
oh, you should totally do it sometime chelle. it's a funny feeling coming out of it, and it makes a good story.
I've only nearly fainted (twice during swallowing observations in the hospital;)
hehe chelley when i read "nearly fainted" i heard Hermione's voice in my head saying "Neely headless? how can you be neely headless?"
And read that book during spring of 'o6. Loved it. I didn't like his encyclopedia's explanation of stuttering though. Loved the whole Mensa bit. ^_^
Never fainted either, but i think once i came close once.
I thought of Hermione too, autosmiler. :D
oh, autoemlinda, you have to try it sometime (preferably when there's a hottie around - though i've never been that lucky)
and yes, autoemlinda, you get credit for introducing me to it. thank you!
One time I got so mad at a short story that I threw my book across the room during English class. It was embarrassing, but not as embarrassing as fainting would have been. I like your statement about how we've become too jaded, becaus jaded is a good word that doesn't get used enough.
hehe so i've never fainted, but when i was younger i used to daydream that i'd fall asleep at my desk in class and a cute guy would wake me by kissing me.
auto, that's so romantic! i used to daydream about tripping in the hall and falling into cuteguy's arms (who, of course, wouldn't think i was a klutz - he'd just instantly fall in love with me)
but of course!
when i fainted at school in 5th grade my response was so bad upon waking that the nurse called 911. the firefighters got there, and my first thought upon seeing them was 'they're not cute!'
oh, and i can't take credit for the word jaded. all those entries are his.
firefighters are supposed to be cute.
oh, and i'm curious - what's a quset?
?
read the title as you typed it
oh. thank you.
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