On Reading Encyclopedias
A. J. Jacobs read the 2002 Encyclopædia Britannica in just under a year. I’m tempted to read the 2020 World Book in 2023.
Note: This post was originally published on December 30, 2022. I intend to try the feat again (for realz!) in 2024.
I had a brief memory of someone reading an entire set of encyclopedias and writing a book about it. With a tiny bit of research, I discovered that person was A. J. Jacobs and the book was The Know-It-All: One Man’s Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World.
Jacobs read the entire 2002 edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, a reading journey of 32,900 pages and 44 million words over 32 volumes. In his own words:
For those who don’t pay proper attention to encyclopedia structure, the Britannica is divided into two main sections: the Micropaedia and the Macropaedia. The Micropaedia accounts for twelve volumes, and it contains thousands of little snippet-sized articles — a couple of paragraphs, maybe a page or two maximum. The Macropaedia — which clocks in at seventeen volumes — takes a handful of the Micro’s articles (accounting, China, evolution) and offers the extended dance mix.
Earlier this year, I decided to purchase the 2020 version of the World Book encyclopedia (pictured above).
Why did I make this purchase?
Two reasons: Because I remembered my parents having a set from the early 90s and I remembered looking things up in that set when I was young and impressionable¹ and because I wanted to have an alternative to Wikipedia and thought it was time to take the next step in adulting and buy an encyclopedia set.
Incontrast to the EB’s stats above, here’s the stats for the 2020 World Book set from the World Book’s website: 17,000+ articles and 14,000+ pages². There is no macro or micro encyclopedia, just a straight run through the alphabet.
Jacobs was able to read the entire EB in just under a year. From the book, it sounds like he set aside four hours a day every day to read. He and his wife struggled to conceive their first child that year. And he maintained a full time job during that time. So, as a single guy with only a full time job and no social life, I should in theory have ample time to read through my 2020 World Book set in a single year³.
[1]: What I really liked about that set was there was a two volume dictionary that came with the set; sadly, World Book doesn’t produce a dictionary any more.
[2]: Why World Book can’t give the precise page or article count is beyond me.
[3]: Or at least, on the surface, it would seem like I couldn’t complain about not having time.