Jacobs, A. J. The know-it-all: one man's humble quest to become the smartest person in the world. New York: Simon and Schuster Paperbacks, 2005. ISBN 0-7432-5062-1.

Summary: The man in question in Jacobs himself, and the means that he chooses to achieve his goal is to read the entire Encyclopaedia Britannica, from “A-ak” to “Zymiec.” Jacobs works hard to give this foolish enterprise an ironic spin, with occasional success. The book is a journal of the year he spend immersed in the Britannica, arranged alphabetically under headings that indicate which article prompted the journal entry, but dealing almost as much with his family life and personal outlook on the world as with what he was learning from his reading. Not too surprisingly, these personal glimpses show the author as shallow and self-centered. He can, however, be entertaining. In the following passage, he proposes to the editorial staff at Esquire magazine an article on a topic that he has learned about from the Britannica:

“I think we whould do something on an unsung hero of our country,“ I pause dramatically, then: “Lichen.”

“The fungus thing?”

“Part fungus, part algae, and all-American.”

The faces of my colleagues indicate that they don't quite follow. So I explain: George Washington's starving troops ate lichen off the rocks at Velley Forge. Lichen saved our country. If it weren't for lichen -- or more specifically rock tripe, a type of lichen -- we'd all be playing cricket. ...

Originally I was thinking big -- a two-page spread on lichen, a list of its other uses (perfumes, litmus, food dyes), a lichen recipe, the top ten varieties of lichen, a celebrity lichen angle that I hadn't quite figured out yet.

In the end, he persuades Esquire to run an end-of-the-page filler -- “a little salute to lichen,” including a photograph.