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The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible
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Average Rating:  out of 396 Reviews
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Price: $15.00
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Sale: $8.44
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Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
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EAN (European Article Number): 9780743291484
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Number of Items: 1
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Binding: Paperback
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Author: A. J. Jacobs
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Publisher: Simon & Schuster
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Edition: Reprint
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Dewey Decimal Number: 220
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Publication Date: 2008-09-09
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Reading Level: 416
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Description: 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
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Customer Reviews
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Review Summary: Great Book! Funny read! |
Date: 2008-11-22 |
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Details: I've just finished reading A.J. Jacob's "The Year of Living Biblically" and it was hilarious. I would definitely recommend this book to everyone I know. Very funny. (and hi Mr. Jacob's dad :) ) |
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Review Summary: Just o.k. |
Date: 2008-11-19 |
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Details: I downloaded a sample of this book on to my kindle and found myself laughing out loud the first couple chapters. So, I went ahead and bought the book. The problem was it just wasn't that great. The author is funny and clever, but the book was a whole lot of the same thing throughout. I got bored halfway. I found myself skimming for a while until I got to the part where he lives the new testament, only to be dissatisfied. He basically skips over the new testament. Cute book, but too long and a lot of fluff, not much meat. |
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Review Summary: insightful and fun |
Date: 2008-11-18 |
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Details: i bought this book, well after the buzz about it had subsided, because i'd heard such good things about it. and i was not disappointed. it was one of the more fun and thought-provoking non-fiction works i've read this year.
the author is a self-described secular jew, and has lived his whole life in new york. he's an editor at esquire magazine. and, previously, he published a best-selling book about read the entire britannica encyclopedia, called The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World (which i just ordered for my kindle). while reading through the encyclopedia, all the post about judaism and christianity caught his attention, and he thought it might be interesting to try a little experiment: live an entire year - as the subtitle says -- with as literal an interpretation of the bible as possible.
jacobs spends 8 months of his year trying to live by the entire old testament, and his final 4 months trying to live a literal new testament interpretation.
of course, one person's literal interpretation is another person's heresy (or, at least, wackiness). so jacobs spends a good deal of real estate sifting through which literal interpretation to try to live by. the results are almost always interesting, often insightful, and occasionally hilarious.
here's the thing that really surprised me: i expected this to be a book that would make me wince. it did -- but for different reasons than i expected. i expected to wince as he mocked christians and observant jews. but jacobs turns out to be beautifully gracious. in a sense, that's what caused me to wince! here was a non-believer, seriously trying to live "our way" (well, some of it is "our way"), and treating the entire thing with much more respect and grace and serious inquiry and thoughtful mind, heart and soul pursuit than a major slice of those who actually call themselves christians! ouch!
we also get a glimpse into jacobs' own spiritual journey, as he genuinely tries to be open to the potential reality of god and the jewish/christian story of reality. and there is some movement, which he rejoices in and expounds on.
no, there's no big conversion story at the end. but it's a great romp through both the follies of literalism, the challenge of scripture, and the sometimes-positive implications of the book of God. |
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Review Summary: Biblically -- Yes. spiritually -- No. |
Date: 2008-11-17 |
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Details: I had high hopes for this book, and unfortunately, they weren't met. I had expected that this book would be about someone who truly had an entire year free of any other responsibilities other than to search after God. Instead, what I saw was a guy attempting to do what so many of us attempt to do in our everyday lives -- to carve out a little corner every day for God, in between soccer practice and carpooling and trips to the dry cleaners, and Starbucks and all that other stuff. . . I guess I assumed that the difference between me and this Famous Author Dude was that he had decided that his "job" for a year was to live like the Bible mandates. I guess I assumed that that would mean that living biblicaly would be front and center for him all year. Quite frankly, I expected a lot more praying and fasting. There wasn't any fasting at all! The questions I had hoped he would deal with were things like "what makes people hunger for God so much in the first place -- that they're willing to devote their entire lives to memorizing chunks of Scripture, spending time in a community of faith and so forth . . " Actually, I felt like he was way too easy on himself, and never really entered fully into the experiment. I would have liked him to go into the desert to contemplate the state of his soul. He didn't do that. For a serious person of faith, this book will read very much like Scripture Lite. |
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Review Summary: The Worlds Best "Non-Biblical" Bible Study Book Ever! |
Date: 2008-11-16 |
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Details: I was given this book from a friend who thought I would enjoy it. This is probably the best gift ever given to me. This book covers the Bible pretty much from A-Z with insight and humor. As a Christian I could not read this book without digging deeper into my own spiritually. This book prompted me to "walk the walk" a little better. Okay, I'm not quite the fanatic that A.J. Jacobs (Jacob) was, but hey, who is? I cannot recommend this book enough. I want to start a Bible/Book study to discuss this with my friends. Heck, they already think I'm "out there" so what do I have to lose anyway? I had to sign on to the Amazon website link (just in case Mr. Jacobs is checking his standings -- read the book, you'll understand). All I can say is, buy this book, you won't be disappointed! |
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