Thursday. I never could get the hang of Thursdays --Arthur Dent

I'm going to review these next two books out of order, because I'm still not sure what I thought about the first one:


The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest To Become The Smartest Man In the World

by A. J. Jacobs

Or maybe not.  I've found I don't laugh out loud at books these days, maybe I never did.  But I came oh-so-close to it on this one.  A. J. Jacobs is like Erma Bombeck--a humor writer who is also a human being, and you laugh the louder because you feel where he's coming from.  His petty sarcasm is your petty sarcasm.

So I liked this, a lot..  I followed his odyssey through the Encyclopedia Britannica, all 33,400 pages of it.  I loved his subtle rivalries with his father and his brother-in-law Eric, the biggest know-it-all he knows.  I shared his embarrassment at a Mensa meeting and a school visit.  And I adored his family, every kindly and kooky one of them.  And despite the chapter titles A-Z, the book actually had a plot.  Several--my favorites were the pregnancy pursuit and the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? melee.   (Sorry, tiny spoiler there.)

The second book, which I devoured in a long session this afternoon, will be reviewed tomorrow.