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: #18391 in Books
• Published on: 2008-02-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

Synopsis
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...

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

A hoot.
I had been getting a little tired of these supposedly humorous reports - I find them often quite juvenile, and very unfunny (see my review of 'Rock On', by Ed Kennedy).

But this one really pulls it off. It is a gloriously funny book - I laughed out loud a few times, in public. Very refreshing.

AJ, as he calls himself, plunges into the Bible (starting with the Old Testament, and moving on to the New for the last three months). He takes this seriously, but never loses his sense of humour. He interviews rabbis, ministers of various churches, and professors of theology; he wants to understand how the Bible works. Should it be taken literally? Or should it be interpreted. Of course, he can never decide, but for practical reasons has to be reasonable - he can go along with not shaving and with sacrificing a chicken in New York but can't quite bring himself to stoning an adulterer (he does try to 'pebble' one, but is nearly punched in return).

And it helps that his wife is understanding. And she's funny too - she deliberately sits in all the chairs at home during her period, and so forces him to sit on his son's baby chair and to buy a portable stool for everyday use.

Even though it is fun, it is never cheaply insulting - that would have been too easy.

AJ: Bravo. You've done an excellent job.

Excellent
I really enjoyed this book.

For a start, I found it both interesting and funny. Jacob's has a style that makes you want to read more...and just a bit more...until you end up finishing the book all too soon.

There are some great 'stupid project' books about...but Jacobs seems to pick subjects that dwarf the others by comparasion.

'Know it all' - his quest to read the Encyclopedia Brittanica was amazing, and now he has even topped that with his year of living Biblically.

Fascinating and witty. I have no hesitation in giving this 5 stars - I just wonder what he will tackle next!

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?