Thursday, February 7, 2008

Book #10: The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible


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

AJ Jacobs spends one year growing a beard, wearing white and trying to follow all of the rules of the Old and New Testaments, all while living in Manhattan, maintaining his day job, raising a young family, and searching for faith.

Whoa nelly, all I have to say is that Julie, Jacobs's wife, is a saint. Jacobs admits that even before the biblical experience, he was kind of a weird guy (he elaborates on his many OCD tendencies), but I'm guessing Julie didn't know that she'd spend the year pregnant with twins and married to a crazy-bearded, robe-wearing freaky dude. At the beginning of his experiment, Jacobs went through the Bible, wrote down all of the rules, and tried to live as many of them as possible. He also studied the Bible intensely for the year, and consulted several religious advisors. He writes the book in monthly chapters, and in each chapter, takes on a different aspect of the Bible (creationism, for example). He begins the year as an agnostic, a Jew in name only, and ends as some sort of a faithful, hopeful believer. It's an interesting read-- and it makes me glad that I don't have to follow all of the rules of the Bible.

1 comment:

frugalmom said...

That sounds...interesting...makes me think of Even Almighty wearing his Noah robes.