Home Again, Home Again Jiggidy Jig

This was the view we saw each morning as we walked from the ocean to the dining room for the last week.  One week in the sun and surf with the grand children and their Mom.  One of the best holidays I have been on, great resort and super company.

The Know It All

   A couple of birthdays ago my kids gave me a copy of "The Year of Living Biblically" by A.J. Jacobs. It was a very interesting read and raised a variety of questions and spurred discussions among the family.
   "The Know It All" was actually written before "A Year of Living Biblically" but I only recently encountered it at Chapters/Indigo on the discount shelves and so I bought it.  "The Know it All" is a semi autobiographical story featuring  his insights  and commentary while he tries to read the entire Encyclopaedia Britannica.   Jacobs is a writer with an easy to read style and a dry wit that makes the book quite entertaining in places. For me the author's enquiry into the knowledge vs. wisdom, information vs. knowledge dichotomy in of much greater interest than the stories about his friends and family....but that I guess is what keeps the content from becoming too dense.

   The central thread of the book is Jacob's reading the entire Encyclopaedia  Britannica, all entries, every page.  He takes over a year and has many interesting comments and experiences related to his quest.  
   I think it is a book that I will keep around and dip into again when I have a little time  to kill.  I am also thinking that I need to get a set of Encyclopedias to browse when there is nothing pressing on my time.


http://ajjacobs.com/books/kia.asp   This is his site and what he says he was doing.