Journal Entry 1 by Annadlx from Wiesbaden, Hessen Germany on Thursday, October 19, 2006

From Publishers Weekly
Imagine, the original Berserkers were "savage Norse soldiers" of the Middle Ages who went into battle stark naked! Or consider the Etruscan habit of writing in "boustrophedon style." Intrigued? Well, either hunker down with your own Encyclopædia Britannica, or buy Esquire editor Jacobs's memoir of the year he spent reading all 32 volumes of the 2002 edition—that's 33,000 pages with some 44 million words. Jacobs set out on this delightfully eccentric endeavor attempting to become the "smartest person in the world," although he agrees smart doesn't mean wise. Apart from the sheer pleasure of scaling a major intellectual mountain, Jacobs figured reading the encyclopedia from beginning to end would fill some gaps in his formal education and greatly increase his "quirkiness factor." Reading alphabetically through whole topics he never knew existed meant he'd accumulate huge quantities of trivia to insert into conversations with unsuspecting victims. As his wife shunned him and cocktail party guests edged away, Jacobs started testing his knowledge in a hilarious series of humiliating adventures: hobnobbing at Mensa meetings, shuffling off to chess houses, trying out for the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, visiting his old prep school, even competing on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. Indeed, one of the book's strongest parts is its laugh-out-loud humor. Jacobs's ability to juxtapose his quirky, sardonic wit with oddball trivia make this one of the season's most unusual books.

reserved for elhamisabel after I'm finished with it. 

Journal Entry 2 by Annadlx from Wiesbaden, Hessen Germany on Wednesday, October 10, 2007

I finally finished it and enjoyed it very much. Jacobs has a way of delivering facts, so that they're not stuffy but funny. Some facts even stuck so I guess I learned some, too. I enjoyed it very much so see how his feat of reading the Britannica intertwined with his life. I respect his done deed! The book is very easy to read in between other books due to its dictionary-style excerpts.

Have fun with the book. 

Journal Entry 3 by elhamisabel from Frankfurt am Main, Hessen Germany on Monday, October 15, 2007

Arrive today, thank you very much!
 

Journal Entry 4 by elhamisabel from Frankfurt am Main, Hessen Germany on Saturday, November 24, 2007

Finished this just now.
It was amusing, entertaiing and at times revealing. Though I mut say that I was surprised at some things he didn't know. But then, I guess there are a lot of things he knows and I don't. ;-)
I, too, have learnt quite a bit out of this summarised version of the EB.

I think this is a perfect book for daily train commute, thanks to its style. Doesn't mean it's not good for a in-one-go read. ;-))

Btw, I found myelf nearly using one of the things I learnt here as an answer to something someone posted in a forum. I just stopped myself from replying that the person had to be naked when she said that she was about to go berserk. :-D

I've already have few BCers lined up for this book, so it'll be out of my hands soon.


_____________________________________________________________________________
This is going to be a RAY with the following participants:

1. dirtmother, UK
2. wilksie, UK
3. Iojima, France 

Journal Entry 5 by dirtmother from Matlock, Derbyshire United Kingdom on Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Arrived safely today.

Yikes, a lot denser than I thought and tiny print but I shall try to crack on with it and not keep people waiting! 

Journal Entry 6 by dirtmother from Matlock, Derbyshire United Kingdom on Monday, December 17, 2007

This has been on that virtual Mount Want To Read for a long time, not available in my local library system so I was delighted to participate in this ring.

I found this a really enjoyable book, very engaging. I've read quite a few what might be termed (by Danny Wallace's ex-girlfriend) 'stupid boy project' books (not so stupid after all huh?) but that detracted not one iota from this. I found it interesting not so much for the snippets of information gleaned from the book but his experience of reading it, his life and his other observations. A real feelgood work.

Just awaiting an address from wilksie 

Journal Entry 7 by wilksie from Sheffield, South Yorkshire United Kingdom on Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Arrived today, thank you very much Dirtmother.
I'm looking forward to reading this (as soon as I have finished my current book). 

Journal Entry 8 by wilksie from Sheffield, South Yorkshire United Kingdom on Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Not a book that I found I could read straight through but great for dipping into. I made it my read-on-the-bus book and I did read every entry. I found so many interesting facts, some that I will remember (the passenger pigeons for instance) and others that I will certainly forget. I enjoyed the way Jacobs mixed the Britannica entries with his everyday life to produce a fascinating and funny book that told us so much more about him and his family. I got quite upset for him when he didn't know that an erythrocyte was a red blood cell. I could have told him that! But I was very pleased to hear about Jasper :-)
I will be posting this on to Iojima tomorrow. 

Journal Entry 9 by Iojima from Nyons, Rhône-Alpes France on Friday, February 01, 2008

Arrived today, thank you. It looks like a lot of fun. 

Journal Entry 10 by Iojima from Nyons, Rhône-Alpes France on Thursday, March 06, 2008

And it was a lot of fun. I read it straight through. I'll probably remember nothing except what an infix is. LOL!!
 

Journal Entry 11 by AnonymousFinder at Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada on Friday, June 04, 2010

One of the best I've ever read, great for reading in small sections at a time. The book reads like an entertaining blog, but probably one of the most educational blogs ever!