Dad O' The Week: A.J. Jacobs

Chances are good that A.J. Jacobs has forgotten more stuff than you or I will ever know. His thoroughly enjoyable book The Know-It-All details his quest to read the entire Encyclopedia Brittanica, all 44 million words of it. I won't spoil the ending - of his book, anyway. The Encyclopedia ends with zywiec. A.J.'s current project: he's spending his days obeying the Bible as literally as possible, and putting it all down on papyrus scrolls. A.J. is also the Editor at Large for Esquire magazine, and is a dad to boot.

The Know-It-All starts with a line that's familiar to many new dads: "I used to be smart." Reading – at least reading books that aren't seven pages long, printed on cardboard, with a talking train as protagonist – often takes a backseat to other, more pressing matters. With your son Jasper in the picture, are you still reading as much as before?

Not quite so much. My son was given about 42 baby encyclopedias, so  sometimes we read those all the way from Anteater to Zebra. Which is probably healthier than reading the Britannica, which goes from a-ak (a type of East Asian music) to zywiec (a Polish town known for its beer). In my spare time, I’m reading different versions of the Bible for my new book.

There's an interesting dynamic in the book between you and your father. Was it hard to be so candid when describing your relationship with him?

Definitely, it was a little tough. I wrote about him in the F chapter, for Freud, since there was a lot of Oedipal stuff going on there. He started to read the encyclopedia when I was a kid, but only made it up to the B’s, around ‘boomerang.’ I wanted to connect with him (and compete with him, I guess), so that was a big motiviation for me reading the encyclopedia. Also, we’re both absurdly repressed, so expressing emotions is hard enough, let alone expressing them in front of someone who's browsing books in Barnes & Noble.

Another aspect of the book that I enjoyed was your (for lack of a better word) affection for the EB. There's a sense today that print encyclopedias are a thing of the past, thanks to the Internet. Is the printed reference book obsolete? And are you worried that Jasper might one day opt to read Wikipedia in it's entirety?

There’s absolutely a sense that the printed encyclopedias are going the way of typewriters and iceboxes and Ricky Martin . The main markets right now are: Libraries, schools, and guys who get book contracts to read the entire EB. Which is kind of a shame. Because there’s something nice about those printed leatherette volumes. The explorer Ernest Shackleton took an entire set of the Britannica with him to Antarctica and ended up using it for kindling. Try doing that with the Internet. And Jasper might have a tough time with the Wikipedia – I hope they give him a big advance.

Your impending fatherhood played a role in the book. Did you find any good parenting advice or stories in the EB?

Well, it did make me feel better about my parenting skills, such as they are. There are a shocking number of fathers who killed their sons, from Ivan the Terrible to King Arthur to various Greek Gods. So compared to them, I’m doing pretty good.

Your current project has you living Biblically. How is this affecting your role as a father?

The Bible says we should talk to our kids about the 10 Commandments, so I’m doing that as much as I can. I tell Jasper not to covet his neighbor’s miniature ukelele or Dora the Explorer backpack. I’m not sure it’s sinking in.
The Bible is also quite pro-corporal punishment, which is something I haven’t been able to bring myself to do.

You're working on the script for the film version of The Know-It-All. (I have a couple of suggestions: get Michael Bay to direct. Montages, explosions, Aerosmith songs, maybe make it a buddy picture - team you up with a middle-aged EB editor on the verge of retirement, and he can keep saying "I'm gettin' too old for this shit!" as you do battle with ninjas. Or get Baz Luhrmann and do a musical/rock opera - call it Brittanica! ). Who would be your pick to portray you?

I love your ideas. Come on board as a producer! Or at least make a cameo as Scandinavian architect Hugo Aalto, the first person to appear in the encyclopedia. As for who I’d pick, I’ll be happy with anyone. I swear. Just as long as it makes it to the screen. I’ll take Armin Mueller-Stahl.

Comments

[Mr. Big Dubya]

Great stuff, man. Can we consider this a legitimate site now? AJ Jacobs, Neil Pollack - we've got juice!

[thisbiochemicallife]

I really enjoyed The Know-It-All, and am looking forward to reading more by Jacobs. Thanks for a great interview! By the way, here is a hilarious article at Esquire by Jacobs looking at the current trend in outsourcing: http://www.smartmoney.com/esquire/index.cfm?Story=20050909-outsource&pgnum=1
It's definitely worth a read!

[mo-wo]

Nice to have a great interview 'en blog'. BTW.. as a librarian who works with schools I always do have to explain why we still get encyclopedias in print... I never hesitate to say have you checked out our bandwidth?? It sucks.. never mind that a lot of our schools do not have access to more than 6 or 8 computers at a time. 6, 7, 8 access points is that good 'enuf?

Encyclopedia Britannica, 32 vols' that's like 32 access points. World book 22.. you get the idea.

That said.. I do take serious bibliodiversity.. So just today I worked on renewing some online subscriptions for 3yrs on....