The Year of Living Biblically by AJ Jacobs

AJ Jacobs is a rare story teller. Someone who can make you laugh, cry, and think philosophical all at the same time. He also has the talent of being able to change his lifestyle in concordance with a different worldview while describing the journey in blunt honesty.

In short, he is an extremely rare story weaver.

I was first introduced to AJ Jacobs through his freshman book “The Know-It-All.” This book detailed his quest to read all forty-four million words of the Encyclopaedia Britannica (A to Z). It is crazy funny and enlightening.

Jacobs second book is the one I want to focus on today, “The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible”.

In this book, Jacobs, an ethnic Jewish agnostic, embarks on a journey to discover a little bit about his forefathers’ religion. Finding a Bible, he proceeds to read it – taking note each time he finds a command. Then, using these notes, Jacobs proceeds to live out the commands as literally as possible.

For example, when he reads the command to stone adulteries, he finds a small pebble and drops it on someone’s foot (seeing how the Bible does actually tell you how large the stone must be…)

On and on he goes – all the while, being brutally honest with his feelings and thoughts during the adventure.

Near the end of the book, Jacobs decides to read through the New Testament and obey it as well. This leads him to visit Jerry Falwell’s church in an attempt to understand fundamentalist evangelical Christianity.

I would tell you more – but I would rather you read the book (or listen to Jacobs reading the book on audio CD) because he makes some amazing conclusions about the Bible, Judaism, and Christianity.

Trust me – this is a great book full of wisdom, honesty, laughter, and craziness. Which, when you think about it, what else do you want in a book?