3.99/5
Author: A. J. Jacobs
Publication Date: Sep 9, 2008
Formats: PDF,Paperback,Hardcover,Kindle,Audible Audiobook,Audio CD
Rating: 3.99/5 out of 60492
Publisher: Clarion / Simon
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Nov 02, 2007
Ask yourself: "Would it be fun to literally follow the bible for one year?" If, like most people I know, would answer no, then run away from this book as fast as you can. I got about 200 pages in when I realized, I can't fucking stand this guy, and his story is getting old quickly.Mar 11, 2008
(4 1/2 Stars)Apr 30, 2009
It seems very authentically Jewish to write smart and funny social commentary about exploring spirituality through following obscure rules. I don’t know if such a thing as being “authentically Jewish†exists (versus everyone who is inauthentically Jewish, right?), and I hope I don’t offend by that phrase, but what I’m saying is that I don’t think Moses and Isaiah and all the boys would kick A.J. Jacobs out of their club. In fact, I think Jacobs comes closer to meaningful Bible commentary than It seems very authentically Jewish to write smart and funny social commentary about exploring spirituality through following obscure rules. I don’t know if such a thing as being “authentically Jewish†exists (versus everyone who is inauthentically Jewish, right?), and I hope I don’t offend by that phrase, but what I’m saying is that I don’t think Moses and Isaiah and all the boys would kick A.J. Jacobs out of their club. In fact, I think Jacobs comes closer to meaningful Bible commentary than any contemporary Christian writers I have read. I was worried when I started the book that it would be like my experience with the Will Farrell movie Blades of Glory: without much substance beyond the weirdness of the concept. Instead, The Year of Living Biblically was an adventure, and I feel it would be very thought provoking and entertaining for readers of any religion or spiritual persuasion.Sep 04, 2007
G.K. Chesterton once wrote, "Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried." In this book, A.J. Jacobs not only tries Christianity, he tries out the whole Bible, both the Jewish and the Christian Scriptures.Aug 26, 2008
It's mean of me to say so, because it's clear that writing it was a rather significant spiritual experience for Jacobs, but this book is just silly. It's meant to be entertaining-yet-thought-provoking, but I only found it mildly entertaining, and not at all thought-provoking. I actually found his wife funnier than him. My favorite part by far was when she was temporarily "unclean" and it annoyed her to be thought of that way, so in revenge she sat on all the furniture so that A.J. would have no It's mean of me to say so, because it's clear that writing it was a rather significant spiritual experience for Jacobs, but this book is just silly. It's meant to be entertaining-yet-thought-provoking, but I only found it mildly entertaining, and not at all thought-provoking. I actually found his wife funnier than him. My favorite part by far was when she was temporarily "unclean" and it annoyed her to be thought of that way, so in revenge she sat on all the furniture so that A.J. would have no place to sit when he got home. Now that was funny. ...moreNov 29, 2007
The concept of "The Year of Living Biblically" is this: the author would forgo his secular lifestyle for a year and embrace the Bible and its teachings as literally as possible.Jul 18, 2008
This is what I call a snork book. So funny in parts that if you are drinking coffee, its going to come spluttering out of your nose. AJ Jacobs is a secular Jew (me too) and spends two thirds of this book researching biblical law and trying to live it. The last third addresses the New Testament in the same way. Living biblically for AJ means dressing in white robes, growing a ZZ Top beard and trying to literally fulfil each commandment even if terribly embarrassing. Like buying the guy behind him This is what I call a snork book. So funny in parts that if you are drinking coffee, its going to come spluttering out of your nose. AJ Jacobs is a secular Jew (me too) and spends two thirds of this book researching biblical law and trying to live it. The last third addresses the New Testament in the same way. Living biblically for AJ means dressing in white robes, growing a ZZ Top beard and trying to literally fulfil each commandment even if terribly embarrassing. Like buying the guy behind him in Starbucks a coffee, a guy he doesn't know to be generous. To fulfil not lying, when his wife meets old school friends who say let's get together for a play date he tells them no, he's not interested in making new friends right now and so it goes.May 08, 2008
The Year of Living Biblically starts out pretty fine: I chuckled; I was interested to find out what would come of it all. Halfway through, however, I'd pretty much had enough. Jacobs is a little too smug (though he puts on the requisite veil of "Oh, God! I'm so bad at this religion thing!"), he doesn't portray his wife or son too nicely (she comes off as a humorless snot, though she's probably lovely in real life; son Jasper sounds like a brat), and it's annoying how little Jacobs thinks of my The Year of Living Biblically starts out pretty fine: I chuckled; I was interested to find out what would come of it all. Halfway through, however, I'd pretty much had enough. Jacobs is a little too smug (though he puts on the requisite veil of "Oh, God! I'm so bad at this religion thing!"), he doesn't portray his wife or son too nicely (she comes off as a humorless snot, though she's probably lovely in real life; son Jasper sounds like a brat), and it's annoying how little Jacobs thinks of my memory (me the reader, that is). He introduces people over and over again, as if we couldn't possibly keep track of his marginal characters. He also tells us over and over and over again that he works for Esquire, as if we would all of a sudden think, "Whoa, get back, why is he in the Esquire offices?!?!?"Mar 30, 2008
My fiancee has been bugging me for months to read this book and I am oh-so-glad that I finally did. Her enthusiasm for it was unflagging - she brought home an advanced reader's copy from work as soon as she heard it was in the works. She then bought at least two more copies for friends during the holidays - bought them, even though she works for the publisher and could have probably finagled a pair of free ones. But I kept hesitating, despite her praise. For one thing, it's non-fiction, which I My fiancee has been bugging me for months to read this book and I am oh-so-glad that I finally did. Her enthusiasm for it was unflagging - she brought home an advanced reader's copy from work as soon as she heard it was in the works. She then bought at least two more copies for friends during the holidays - bought them, even though she works for the publisher and could have probably finagled a pair of free ones. But I kept hesitating, despite her praise. For one thing, it's non-fiction, which I sometimes take to sneering at, mostly because I know that most readers would rather read a non-fiction book about the history of Cod than a work of new fiction by some bright young author. My fiancee, incidentally, works for a fairly-strictly non-fiction imprint, so she reads a ton of it now - and so I feel it's my silent duty to even out the scales. Finally I made the mistake she was waiting for. I was set to embark upon a long flight, followed by a two-day car trip, followed by another long plane trip. She caught me staring at my shelf disappointedly, and I said, "I don't have anything I feel like reading." I'd fallen right into her evil trap, of course, because no sooner did I blink and her advanced reader's copy of The Year of Living Biblically was resting in my hands. Just to keep things balanced, I still read Vile Bodies first.Nov 06, 2018
Jan 06, 2008
I found the book to be less about an exploration of the Bible and biblical religions, more about: "I'm OCD and here's my latest obsession!" I did appreciate that the author mentioned this directly on page 148, and the book was quirky and interesting enough that I stuck with it until the end.Jun 12, 2008
I really, really liked this book! A.J. Jacobs is now one of my favorite guys. He writes for Esquire magazine. I don't even know for sure what that magazine is about (I think it's a men's magazine), but it makes me want to read it anyways.Sep 30, 2008
This book would have been a lot better had it been written by someone more capable and less smug. The premise itself is fascinating -- living the bible literally -- as are the religious groups that the author decided to interview, including snake handlers, the Amish, right-wing Christians, and Samaritans, to name a few. However, his "whoooa, I'm so secular, wow, look at all these religious people, whooooa" attitude made it nothing more than a half-baked project written under a deadline, sloppily This book would have been a lot better had it been written by someone more capable and less smug. The premise itself is fascinating -- living the bible literally -- as are the religious groups that the author decided to interview, including snake handlers, the Amish, right-wing Christians, and Samaritans, to name a few. However, his "whoooa, I'm so secular, wow, look at all these religious people, whooooa" attitude made it nothing more than a half-baked project written under a deadline, sloppily contrasted with the author's own life, and a superficial read. Now you know what happens when you send your kid to a university with a pass/fail system instead of grades: you get passable mediocrity that for some unknown reason, gets celebrated by American audiences.Apr 19, 2009
What would happen to the man who really tried to put others before himself? Love his enemies? Turn the other cheek? Give to all who asked- no strings attached?Nov 03, 2007
Ok, I did NOT think I would like this book, and I certainly didn't think it would get five stars - and I grappled with that, as usual, but felt like I can't not give five stars to a book I loved this much just because I'm a snob (I try to apply the same to my students' papers, sadly I am not as effective there).Jan 05, 2017
I keep going back and forth on keeping this book to donating it, so I'm going to hold onto it until I make up my mind.Jun 11, 2016
Written by an agnostic man who grew up in a secular Jewish home.Nov 29, 2011
Don't let the subject of this book scare you into thinking it's preachy or self-righteous or filled with sermonizing. It is actually a very funny and open-minded book about the Bible and how following it to a literal extreme is well, just plain silly.Dec 14, 2008
“I've rarely said the word ‘Lord,’ unless It’s followed by ‘of the Rings.’â€Feb 19, 2018
Fun and interesting. A little too self-effacing and mild, but I liked where he went with this. The author kept important threads going throughout the book, with a lot of interesting side excursions.Mar 12, 2013
"It is through being in Christ and following Him that we become transformed. Unless one takes this step, one cannot be truly transformed. So, after your year is over, you will go back to being a man who find purpose in weird projects and writing assignments. Becoming a follower of Jesus Christ is much more rewarding." This is an e-mail sent to A. J. Jacobs by 'a conservative evangelical Christian' which I think aptly sums up this book. Unless he accepts the Biblical stories as valid and honest "It is through being in Christ and following Him that we become transformed. Unless one takes this step, one cannot be truly transformed. So, after your year is over, you will go back to being a man who find purpose in weird projects and writing assignments. Becoming a follower of Jesus Christ is much more rewarding." This is an e-mail sent to A. J. Jacobs by 'a conservative evangelical Christian' which I think aptly sums up this book. Unless he accepts the Biblical stories as valid and honest accounts of true happenings, unless he cedes the Bible to be spiritually inspired and the work of a deity, unless he actually believes in God (with a capital G) then, and only then, could A. J. Jacobs derive something significantly meaningful from this experiment. Upsettingly, this was not the case. Jacobs entered this book as an agnostic and left merely as a reverential agnostic; not much of a change. I cannot fault him for this lack of radical change, you can't force religion upon yourself no matter how hard you try, but I can fault the book for leading me on 300+ pages and ending in anticlimax.Aug 27, 2008
For a guy who doesn't consider himself religious, he has quite a journey trying to live Biblically. I was worried it would be really sacrilegious, but it wasn't. AJ himself gets more out of the experience than he anticipated. He has a lot of deep musings as well as hilarity.Nov 11, 2010
A secular writer (for Esquire, he'll tell you at least 100+ times!) decides to live by the bible literally for a year, and write about the challenges of doing so.Jul 14, 2011
A.J. Jacobs is a journalist and editor of Esquire magazine, who has some really interesting ideas for memoirs. I first heard about Jacobs by a friend who read his book; The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World, in which he all 32 volumes of the 2002 edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. While I’m yet to read this book (but I will) I decided to read The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to follow the Bible as Literally as Possible.Feb 19, 2018
It's been awhile but this popped up on my feed and I do remember reading this. Great concept but I remember being sorely disappointed. All the verses the left uses against us Christians were tried to be lived out. Sanitary laws, dietary laws etc. I do remember a funny bit in there about his wife menstruating and sitting on every seat in the living room. But as new testament Christians we get criticized by some folks that say why do you oppose same sex marriage and yet wear blended garments, eat It's been awhile but this popped up on my feed and I do remember reading this. Great concept but I remember being sorely disappointed. All the verses the left uses against us Christians were tried to be lived out. Sanitary laws, dietary laws etc. I do remember a funny bit in there about his wife menstruating and sitting on every seat in the living room. But as new testament Christians we get criticized by some folks that say why do you oppose same sex marriage and yet wear blended garments, eat pork etc. Well what is repeated in the new is always supposed to be adhered to. And sadly this gets left in the wayside. The sad thing( if I remember correctly ) is that it brought no lasting change to the author, which in all fairness it wouldn't. Only a personal encounter with the LORD JESUS CHRIST is the only thing that will bring about lasting change in a human being. Not no adherence to any religion only through the shed blood of CHRIST. I hope and pray Mr. Jacobs finds that if he hasn't already. I'm sure the tv adaptation will be interesting and I will probably check it out provided it doesn't get blasphemous. ...moreTake your time and choose the perfect book.
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