I’m curious about topics, no matter how niche that
a) It’s possible to exhaustively list every single book that covers that topic to a reasonable degree of certainty
and b) You’ve managed to read every one of those books, either cover to cover or at least skimmed each book
I can’t think of any topics like this off the top of my head but I’m curious what it feels like to know you’re familiar with every book about a domain of human knowledge.
Bonus points of things like also reading every single academic paper or magazine story on a topic or knowing every single person working on the topic or any other such completionist goals.
At one time, over 20 years ago when I was doing my master’s degree, I believe I read everything that had been published about a very niche sub-topic within my field. It was so niche that I won’t say what it was, because it could easily identify me.
I spent months reading everything I could. There actually wasn’t much, it was finding it that was the hard part. Had to read old microfiche and micro cards (I think that’s what they were called) that hadn’t seen light of day in decades, got more materials through inter-library loan, etc. Even met a couple of the very few researchers besides me who worked on it (they actually didn’t care about my topic per se, they merely used it as a “novel task” to investigate other things).
Not sure of the state of that field today. Probably a fair bit more has come out since then. But at the time I felt I had taken in most of what existed in the world. And lest it sound like this was important in any way, it was a completely frivolous topic that has little relevance to anyone else.
I found out I was lactose intolerant in 1978, when I had never even heard the term. Today everybody knows it, but at the time literally nothing comprehensive had been written for the layperson, the person who had to avoid dairy. (At the time it was thought you had to be binary, although today people understand its a continuum.)
I read everything. Every article in the local university’s medical library. Every fact I could dig up. I went to a lactase manufacturing plant. I corresponded with every dairy-free product purveyors and made lists of products. I wrote two books on the subject that are still definitive and lauched a major website. I later did a 1500-entry blog and produced a book out of that as well, all about living with lactose intolerance and related ailments. I’ve gotten and answered literally thousands of emails on the subject from people in over 30 countries.
I was the only layperson invited to the NIH’s State of the Science Conference on Lactose Intolerance. I’d say that pretty much clinches my claim to be the world’s leading lay expert on the subject.
Yes, I’m shamelessly bragging. I put decades into it. What does it feel like? It’s feels good, a true accomplishment that helped thousands of people, most of it volunteer work. I’ve said all I can say on LI and retired from the subject and am now trying to be a world-class expert on other stuff. My advice: don’t attempt it unless you have an obsessive personality. It will eat your brain.
Wow, great answer, thanks!
It’s kind of incredible that even in 1978, it was possible for someone to know everything there was to know about a topic as broad as lactose intolerance.
Did you ever get a sense that other, non-English speaking countries where LI was more prevalent had a firmer grasp on the topic or was there a similar degree of ignorance globally?
What was it like when some new book or article came out on the topic? Did you feel like you needed to get a hold of the book right away? Would you rapidly skim it in the parts that covered stuff other books had covered comprehensively or did you feel the need to reread that info again?
What was the point where you decided it was too much and let go of tracking every single piece of new info? How much do you still keep abreast with new developments in the field?
The first general article for the public appeared in Scientific American in 1970, and that basically covered genetics and testing. The phrase didn’t appear in newspapers until the next year. I learned of it from a young doctor at a clinic. I had had severe abdominal issues for years but this was the first time I had medical coverage. I think it was lucky I saw a young doctor just out of school.
No newspaper databases back then, of course. I used the Readers Guide to Periodical Literature to find magazines. I never found a book from another country then or now. (Have I looked recently? No.) Interestingly, the anthropological community was way ahead of the medical community. They did testing all over the world and discovered the way the mutation that allowed the persistence of the lactase enzyme that digests lactose followed the path of Indo-European languages into Europe, which is why LI wasn’t a major problem there. They also found the ways that milk was processed into lower lactose foods like yogurt, kefir, and hard cheese, so that dairy was incorporated into most of the world’s cuisines.
I amassed every bit of paper I could find, mostly by xeroxing articles at the library. I read every word. I went back and redid the research and reading for my second, expanded book. (An Amazon review took stars off because it was “too thorough.” Start a thread on why writers want to slit their wrists.) I think that increased the total world’s supply of LI books to four. (More now, of course.) I still have a large filing cabinet full of xeroxes that I really need to recycle some time.
About ten years into my blog I realized that I was writing every entry for at least the third time. Everybody knows the term lactose intolerance and there are thousands of products that address every aspect of it. I quit the daily habit cold turkey and never regretted it. (Although I still answer every email question that gets sent to me and always will.)
There’s not a lot written about the rock band Genesis, but I’ve read everything substantial. I’m sure I’ve missed some quickie Phil Collins fan books from the 1980s when he was everywhere, but aside from the that, I think I’ve read everything,
I’ve had a lifelong fascination with the Donner Party. (maybe I was one of them, died, and am currently reincarnated!). I think I’ve read everything, including at least two fiction books about that tragic journey (and those fiction books were excellent, getting inside the heads of the members).