The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible

Additional The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible Information

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.

What Customers Say About The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible:

Jacobs made me laugh, like I haven't laughed in a while. is reading this review (hello there.

The book is great, I give it 5 stars +. :)).

I have to say, I RARELY laugh out loud. And I have to thank him for that.Based on his book he checks the readers review every day so it's is likely that A.J.

Totally recommended. actually, I NEVER laugh out loud but from page 1, A.J.

Sometimes 'till tears came out of my eyes.

I haven't read the ending, but I hope you have come to know Christ in a real way as your best friend, guide, savior, and lord. Please being praying for me & I will do the same for you and your growing lovely family. I'm not sure of the ending, but this I do know.As a Christian I tend to focus on God's love, grace, and mercy and at times take for granted what Christ has done for me.

Thanks for the strong reminders and wake up call. You Rock. I enjoy your honesty, sense of humor and writing style.

I am currently in the middle of the book @ day 144. Without Christ in my life & heart.I would be like a fish floundering out of water. Kevin =:^D (This is first review ever to write in my life- so i hope you see it).

Thank-you A.J for opening my eyes to the seriousness of the gospel and reminding me that I should be more loving, grateful of everyday, value life, value my wife & kids more. I can relate to so many things and personality traits that you have.

Hello to A.J., Julie, the boys and A.J.'s dad who will hopefully click that this review is helpful. I'm almost finished and I'm so sad that I've been trying to read it less each day simply because I don't want it to end. P.S. I've always been interested in psychology and religion and this book combines both beautifully. :) I honestly don't care. I've dealt with many strange glances my way while I laugh aloud on the subway or while I'm walking (yes, walking). In all seriousness, I love reading this book.

This book made me smile, not laugh, about four times. I didn't. If this kid was my son-in-law, I'd take him to the woodshed.I like a good laugh. But for me, this book is a mix of bad comedy and just plain dumb thinking.To like this kind of book, it helps to like the central character in this "memoir," the author.

At one point the author calls himself a "voyeuristic schmuck." I nodded my head. Maybe if when he went to college he had studied something real instead of writing papers about bong hits (so he says) he'd be more thoughtful. Maybe he'd be a better comic writer as well. He may have a good book in him. I think I'm just too old for a book like this. Maybe if you're under forty, this kind of sloppy thinking and Google heavy "research" makes a good book. At least he knows what he is. It's a very irritating read for the most part.

He abuses the help of a lot of people along his "journey." He uses his wife as a kind of prop throughout the book. It makes for poor comedy. But we'll never know as long as he keeps writing mindless self-indulgent junk like this. Jacobs is a decent writer, but he is very undisciplined. I kept thinking, if this was my kid I'd love him but I'd also be tearing my hair out. It's certainly not thoughtful or scholarly.Mr.

Maybe if you like Saturday Night Live and non-stop references to popular culture with name dropping of tabloid actors and singers who will be forgotten in a couple of years, this book is funny and relevant. I really do. The author decides to go about religion backwards: follow the rules and see if faith comes his way. This book is a memoir the same way the Olive Garden is an Italian restaurant. The author decides to write pages upon pages about the black sheep of his family - a deranged man once wed to his aunt - when he admits it will upset his parents and when he has to know that the former uncle only vaguely has anything to do with the subject of his book.This book is a dumb stunt.

I finished reading it today ( Monday evening)and if I had not had to work today I would have finished it sooner. I enjoyed his journal style of writing.

He has done a very daring thing and risked much doing it.A.J. This is a wonderful book of an experiment performed by one man but shared by many in his life and ultimately life changing for him and his family.

I picked this book up Saturday at a local Sam's club because I was bored and needed something to read. I found it hard to put down.

(Jacob) you have a very understanding wife and blessings on you and your family. I have to admit the cover art attracted me as did the pictures of you with the sheep.

I am already thinking of friends I need to recommend it to as a good read.