I just want to say that I have a mad crush on A.J. Jacobs. He is the author of The Year Of Living Biblically and The Know-It-All. He is really funny. I'm a sucker for really funny and really smart. Hence, the crush. The Know-It-All is about his quest to read the Encyclopedia Britannica from A to Z. Not only have I learned some interesting facts, I have laughed out loud. A lot. I needed to laugh and needed some escapism from my sad life right now and this book was the perfect remedy for it.
I was particularly amused by his Mensa experience. He joined Mensa based on his SAT scores, which, when he wrote the book, needed to be 1250. I think even I got that on the SAT. He then decides that he wants to take the Mensa test anyway and learns that it was good his SAT scores were so high. He goes to the Mensa convention on Staten Island. And let me say, it's really funny. Makes me not so sad about being 1 IQ point short of being able to join.
I was also amused by his quest to go on Jeopardy! And his opinion of Alex Trebek was close to mine. He interviewed Trebek for Esquire and was then disqualified from trying to get on Jeopardy! So he tried out for Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. A kindred spirit.
I also liked his discussion of his aunt, who's a professor at Yale giving him Sartre's Nausea. He reads it and decides that Sartre needs to go to existential hell. That one made me spit water out my nose. Existential hell. Classic.
There are other classic lines in the book as well. But I don't want to give too much away because one of you, my loyal readers, may want to read it. It's a good read and very entertaining. I recommend it.
I think next I'm either going to read, (1) Being And Nothingness (because I think I need some existentialism right now), (2) The Fountainhead (because I never like to give up on a book, especially book club books), or (2) The Assassin's Gate (because it's George Packer and because it's about the Middle East and well, we all know I'm not close to done with that right now. Oh and because I started it before The Fountainhead and really want to get back to it. Did I mention it's by George Packer? I like him).
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