Simon Garfield’s All The Knowledge In The World is a must-read. Well, a must-read if you like reading a book about books that tell you things you can find in other books. To say it’s niche is perhaps too vague. But, if, like me, you grew up in a pre-Internet house where there was a stack of encyclopaedias taking up a whole lot of floor and wall space, then Simon Garfield’s brilliantly researched and (alphabetically) presented book is for you.
Maybe I’m doing All The Knowledge In The World a disservice. It actually deals with something far more engaging than just the history of the encyclopaedia – a fascinating history that is nowhere near as straightforward as you might imagine. Garfield is really asking: what is knowledge? And what is our understanding of permanence in the digital age? By delving into our bulky past, Garfield questions our streamlined present and he does this, not just with anorakian insight, but also great wit. This book is funny, actual laugh-out-loud funny, and that’s impressive for a book that deals with categorisations, lists, labels and definitions in an all-but-dead format.
The encyclopaedia may have had its day in print, but this is a book that deserves to be on the shelf of every knowledge geek in the western world.
All The Knowledge In The World: The Extraordinary History Of The Encyclopaedia, Simon Garfield (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
Price: £18.99. Info: here
words JOHN-PAUL DAVIES