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The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible
by: A. J. Jacobs

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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 220
EAN: 9780743291477
ISBN: 0743291476
Label: Simon & Schuster
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 400
Publication Date: October 09, 2007
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Sales Rank: 7307
Studio: Simon & Schuster

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Product Description:
From the bestselling author of The Know-It-All comes a fascinating and timely exploration of religion and the Bible.

Raised in a secular family but increasingly interested in the relevance of faith in our modern world, A.J. Jacobs decides to dive in headfirst and attempt to obey the Bible as literally as possible for one full year. He vows to follow the Ten Commandments. To be fruitful and multiply. To love his neighbor. But also to obey the hundreds of less publicized rules: to avoid wearing clothes made of mixed fibers; to play a ten-string harp; to stone adulterers.

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's quest transforms his life even more radically than the year spent reading the entire Encyclopedia Britannica for The Know-It-All. His beard grows so unruly that he is regularly mistaken for a member of ZZ Top. He immerses himself in prayer, tends sheep in the Israeli desert, battles idolatry, and tells the absolute truth in all situations - much to his wife's chagrin.

Throughout the book, Jacobs also embeds himself in a cross-section of communities that take the Bible literally. He tours a Kentucky-based creationist museum and sings hymns with Pennsylvania Amish. He dances with Hasidic Jews in Brooklyn and does Scripture study with Jehovah's Witnesses. He discovers ancient biblical wisdom of startling relevance. And he wrestles with seemingly archaic rules that baffle the twenty-first-century brain.

Jacobs's extraordinary undertaking yields unexpected epiphanies and challenges. A book that will charm readers both secular and religious, The Year of Living Biblically is part Cliff Notes to the Bible, part memoir, and part look into worlds unimaginable. Thou shalt not be able to put it down.

Amazon.com:
Amazon Best of the Month, September 2007: Make no mistake: A.J. Jacobs is not a religious man. He describes himself as Jewish 'in the same way the Olive Garden is an Italian restaurant.' Yet his latest work, The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible, is an insightful and hilarious journey for readers of all faiths. Though no fatted calves were harmed in the making of this book, Jacobs chronicles 12 months living a remarkably strict Biblical life full of charity, chastity, and facial hair as impressive as anything found in The Lord of the Rings. Through it all, he manages to brilliantly keep things light, while avoiding the sinful eye of judgment. --Dave Callanan

Amazon.com
Subtitled: 'One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible,' Jacobs, or A.J., as his two-year-old son calls him, does just that. It is likely that no one but A.J. Jacobs could have accomplished such a feat. After all, his last book, The Know-It-All, chronicles his reading of the entire Encyclopedia Brittanica, from A to Z. No one but a smart, witty, self-deprecating, nitpicky kinda guy would undertake two such daunting tasks, and complete them with grace, no pun intended.

Jacobs, a New York Jewish agnostic, decides to follow the laws and rules of the Bible, beginning with the Old Testament, for one year. (He actually adds some bonus days and makes it a 381-day year.) He starts by growing a beard and we are with him through every itchy moment. Jacobs is borderline OCD, at least as he describes himself; obsessing over possible dangers to his son, germs, literal interpretation of Bible verses, etc. He enlists the aid of counselors along the way; Jewish rabbis, Christians of every stripe, friends and neighbors.

In an open-minded way he also visits with atheists, Evangelicals Concerned (a gay group), Jerry Falwell, snake handlers, Red Letter Christians--those who adhere to the red letters in the Bible, those words spoken by Jesus Himself, and even takes a trip to Israel and meets Samaritans. Through it all, he keeps a healthy skepticism, but continues to pray and is open to the flowering of real faith. Jacobs is a knowledge junky, to be sure. He enjoys the lore he picks up along the way as much as any other aspect of his experiment. One of the ongoing schticks is his meeting with the shatnez tester, Mr. Berkowitz. He is the one who determines whether or not your clothes are made of mixed fibers, in keeping with the Biblical injunction not to wear wool and linen together. The two become friends and prayer partners, in only one of the unexpected results of this year.

In the end, he says, 'I'm now a reverent agnostic. Which isn't an oxymoron, I swear. I now believe that whether or not there's a God, there is such a thing as sacredness. Life is sacred.' Not a bad outcome. --Valerie Ryan

Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- fascinating look at the Bible
I get highly frustrated at people who think their view of the Bible is the ONLY correct one, that EVERYTHING in the Bible is true and the literal "write this down" word from God's mouth. I think that's why I love this book so much -- because in addition to being hilarious, Jacobs points out all sorts of silly, absurd, and random selections from the Bible. And he does so without being offensive or crass or mean -- just presents a passage and then gets to "Huh. So what does this mean?" He consults a variety of spiritual advisors and reads MANY MANY books to help find answers. He presents all sorts of fun trivia tid-bits and potential explainations to try to make sense of the oddness.

At its core, the process for this book was maybe a bit more excessive and random than, say, just writing an in-depth scholarly summarization of Biblical literalism would have been. But this is SO much more fun.
... Read More

Rating:

- Fast and interesting read
My mom's library book club was reading this book. One day while at her house, I opened it up and read the first 20 pages. I was hooked. The concept alone, of someone deciding to spend an entire year living according to the Bible, was interesting enough. However, the author's subtle sense of humor adds to the enjoyment of the book. It was a very quick and easy read. Unlike some, who would have used this same concept to create a book that slams you with heavy-handed religious lectures, he shares every day successes and failures in his quest. Reading his book actually made me want to be a better person; it made me want to do better at following some of the more mainstream Bible directives such as not lying about anything, doing more to honor your parents, trying to do more good deeds for strangers, etc. I highly recommend this book. I plan on looking up other books by this author.

Rating:

- Funny and insightful
The author has a very keen sense of humor and did a great job of portraying a complicated subject. I've been a moderate Christian my whole life and I really learned a lot from this book, both about variations of my own religion as well as Judaism. I also just flat out enjoyed reading it. I appreciated his candor in stating his biases and his attempts to overcome them. Most of all I enjoyed his dry wit, it made the book eminently readable. I look forward to going out and getting "Know it All".

Rating:

- Funny and Poignant - Highly Recommended!
I really loved this book, and I'm not just saying that so the author's dad won't flag my review as unhelpful. : ) I appreciate Jacob's efforts to challenge himself by actually living a different life rather than just writing about one. It takes a lot of courage to expand one's worldview and admit that previous viewpoints might have been faulty or at least, ill-considered. At the same time, the year of living biblically allows the author to explore his past - not just his own past, but his familial and ancestral past. This lets the reader feel that she's in on an introspective search that provided meaning and was worthwhile for the author, which I consider a gift.

The book is very funny, and who doesn't love humor? But more than that, it challenged me to open my mind to the benefits of religion. While I won't be embarking on an effort quite like the author's, the book reminded me of the value of ... Read More

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