Product Description

Avoiding shellfish was easy. The stoning of adulterers proved a little more difficult - and potentially controversial. Was it enough to walk up to an adulterer and gently touch them with a stone? Even that could be grounds for accusations of assault, especially with female adulterers in Manhattan. So what's a good Bible-reading boy to do? Raised in a secular family but increasingly interested in the relevance of faith in our modern world, A.J. Jacobs decides to dive in head first and attempt to obey the hundreds of less-publicized rules. The resulting spiritual journey is at once funny and profound, reverent and irreverent, personal and universal, and will make you see history's most influential book with new eyes.Jacobs immerses himself in prayer, tends sheep in the Israeli desert, fights idolatry, and tells the absolute truth in all situations - much to his wife's chagrin. His beard grows so unruly that he is mistaken for a member of ZZ Top. He tours a Kentucky-based Creationist museum, dances with Hasidic Jews in Brooklyn and studies scripture with Jehovah's witnesses. And he wrestles with the seemingly archaic rules that baffle the twenty-first century brain, yielding unexpected ephiphanies and challenges. A book that will charm readers secular and religious, "The Year Of Living Biblically" is part York Notes to the bible, part memoir, and part look into worlds unimaginable. Thou shalt not be able to put it down...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #268565 in Books
• Published on: 2008-02-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

From the Back Cover
'A.J. Jacobs has written a -- how else to put it? -- Good Book. Let me take my review from the original, Psalm 2, verse 4: 'He that sittith in the heavens shall laugh.' And let me suggest that readers, whether they know their bible or not, get to know A.J. Jacobs. But not in a biblical sense, please.'
PJ O’Rourke

Avoiding shellfish was easy. The stoning of adulterers proved a little more difficult - and potentially controversial. Was it enough to walk up to an adulterer and gently touch them with a stone? Even that could be grounds for accusations of assault, especially with female adulterers in Manhattan. So what's a good Bible-reading boy to do?

Raised in a secular family but increasingly interested in the relevance of faith in our modern world, A.J. Jacobs decides to dive in head first and attempt to obey the hundreds of less-publicized rules. The resulting spiritual journey is at once funny and profound, reverent and irreverent, personal and universal, and will make you see history's most influential book with new eyes.

Jacobs immerses himself in prayer, tends sheep in the Israeli desert, fights idolatry, and tells the absolute truth in all situations - much to his wife's chagrin. His beard grows so unruly that he is mistaken for a member of ZZ Top. He tours a Kentucky-based Creationist museum, dances with Hasidic Jews in Brooklyn and studies scripture with Jehovah's witnesses. And he wrestles with the seemingly archaic rules that baffle the twenty-first century brain, yielding unexpected ephiphanies and challenges.

A book that will charm readers secular and religious, The Year Of Living Biblically is part York Notes to the bible, part memoir, and part look into worlds unimaginable. Thou shalt not be able to put it down...

Praise for The Know It All:

A jape of a book.with Jacobs...coming across as a slightly younger and Jewish Bill Bryson. Some of his quips are worthy even of Woody Allen. Hilarious. Guardian

One of the most informative humorous books and one of the funniest collections of information that I have seen in a long time.' Daily Express

Frequently funny and sometimes downright hilarious, but this is also an unexpectedly moving book. Daily Mail

About the Author
A. J. Jacobs is the editor of What It Feels Like and the author of The Two Kings: Jesus and Elvis, America Offline, Fractured Fairy Tales, and most recently, The Know It All. He is a senior editor of Esquire and lives in New York City with his wife Julie.

Customer Reviews

Witty, thoughtful and thoroughly enjoyable
I read about this book in the Guardian weekend magazine which included a few passages. The bits that were included were very good, so I bought the book. You never know whether they printed the best "bits", but what they printed in the Guardian magazine were just examples of the many brilliant parts of the book. Now, if you're looking for a spiritual guide, or some deep and meaningful book about the bible, this is not for you. But if you want to read an interesting, witty, and thoughtful rendition of how a guy tried to stick to the many rules set out in the bible, this is the book for you. I would recommend this book almost everyone I know because I think most people will find something in it that they can relate to.

Pure pleasure
I loved this book from beginning to end.

A.J.'s year-long experiment to live Biblically is hilarious. He grows his beard, avoids wearing mixed fibers and carries a walking stick. At one point he remarks that he now looks like the sort of person he'd cross the street to avoid. In the New York subway he will suddenly turn his head to see how many people are staring at him. He usually catches at least two or three.

But his quest is also informative, humble, educational, honest and ultimately moving. Oh and did I mention funny?

Somemore please A.J.
Mr A.J. I thank God for your uncle Gi who inspired this book. No one could have made this up. Very witty book could not put it down. The honesty throughout the book on how he went though some encounters whilst following the laws of the bible was very evident and absolutely brilliant but as he mentioned that he is jewish i felt the book dwelt more on the old testament or torah that he did with the new testament. Well you cannot blame the writer as Judiasm is his background, therfore the making the expectations of the his book title feel like one has been short changed for not being Jewish. However A.J Jacobs did make a considerable amount of effort to include those other than the Jewish. It felt as if as he was nearing his last couple of months A.J Jacobs had lost the passion for his project that he started with. However it is definately must buy, hilarious in all aspects and a refreshing read from the more predictable literature that is out there.