July 15, 2007 Academic Encounters of the Curious Kind

Several months ago, an odd little book passed through my fingers. The Know It All by Al Jacobs. An editor for Esquire magazine, Jacobs found the knowledge he acquired during his university education was slipping away. His quirky resolution to remedy this situation? Read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica. With the ambitious subtitle, One Man's Quest To Become The Smartest Person in the World, Jacob's book chronicles a journey from a-ak - defined as Ancient East Asian music - to a man obsessed with facts, testing his knowledge in humiliating adventures and inserting some awkward conversation stoppers along the way. In the same way that a person might risk bodily injury pursuing an extreme sport Jacobs seemed to have created an extreme academic pastime.

As a Reference Librarian, this obsession with facts gave me pause. I thought I would investigate other academic encounters of the curious kind. The Know It All is not the only book to plumb the depths of a reference work. From a different perspective, Simon Winchester published a highly successful work in 1999 called The Professor and the Madman. As the definitive work on the history of the English language, the undertaking of the Oxford English Dictionary was a massive venture in its own right, but underneath this weighty tome of reference lies the compelling story of its editor James Murray and one of his best contributors, the mysterious Dr. W. C Minor. After corresponding for years by mail, Murray finally planned a trip to meet this valued lexicographer to find that Dr. Minor lived as a permanent resident in the Broadmore Criminal Lunatic Asylum. Following up on the success of The Professor and the Madman, Winchester wrote another work on the History of the Oxford English Dictionary called The Meaning of Everything.

Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble players by Stephan Fatsis is another book that delves into the netherworld of the compulsive and smart. In this domain, Fatsis is no outsider either. He devoted a year of his life to research this book and had to play well enough to get on the inside. Ultimately, Word Freak tells the history of scrabble (it was invented by an architect), the intricacies of international play and incredibly the corporate battles to control this popular pastime. Biographical glimpses into the brains of the scrabble obsessed are also intriguing.

Think this passion for facts and words is all a bit remote? Think again. Recently, residents of Thunder Bay were actively engaged in the annual rite of mental passage as they tackled the Thunder Bay Museum Canada Day Quiz. Microfilm newspapers and local history files have been scoured and the Brodie reference staff deluged by the demand to supply local history information by patrons in pursuit of historic facts. If you decide to indulge in a casual academic adventure of your own between bouts of summer fun, the Library is open for business. I don't recommend all 32 volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica for leisure reading, but you can enhance your general knowledge by browsing an accessible book like the New York Times Guide to Essential Knowledge or the upcoming book An Incomplete Education by Judy Jones. Similarly, only the true word warrior would sit down to peruse an entire OED, but we do have a few convenient reads on the curiosities of language. A good choice would be Six Words You Never Knew Had Something To Do With Pigs and Other Fascinating Facts About the Language.

It always pays to expand your horizons and reference staff are always on hand to give you assistance.

Tracey Zurich, Reference Librarian