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812 reviews for:
The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible As Literally As Possible
A.J. Jacobs
3.76 AVERAGE
812 reviews for:
The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible As Literally As Possible
A.J. Jacobs
3.76 AVERAGE
Probably my favourite of the (three) Jacobs' books I've read. Great fun, easy to read, and thoughtful, especially as a fellow Jewish skeptic and religious semi-ignoramus.
This book was absolutely hilarious while at the same time very poignant and smart. The author's descriptions of his attempt at "biblical living" will make you laugh out loud while his thoughts on God, faith, religion, spirituality, prayer, and ritual will make you think....hard. A good book for anyone!
Love this book! As my sister says - he didn't need to look so far - he's married to a SAINT. Humorous tour as the author seeks to live literally by the laws of the Old and New Testament. Highly funny, often thoughtful, educational, and a great story. Not often that a book will make me laugh out loud AND consider the more pleasant aspects of religion. This agnostic really enjoyed his journey.
I don't know why Goodreads recommended religious books ( maybe I do). I don't EVER read religious books, I thought this was a comedy.
The book is arranged by day and month, highlighting various parts of the various versions of the Bible. I enjoyed the book, however, I liked the biblical references more than A.J.’s story. It makes me want to read the Bible, something I’ve been meaning to do for a long time. I am glad I picked up this book; a lot of interesting (and new to me) views were included.
A laugh-out-loud story of one man's "quest" to follow every single law in the Bible. You have to have a bit of a Biblical sense of humor and not take it too seriously, but I have to say that in the end, I found myself appreciating the Bible even more. When I set out to read it, I thought it would merely debunk the idiocy of some of the Biblical laws. What I got out of it instead was an appreciation for the spirituality and calm one can gain from some of these practices...even if you don't take all of them literally.
Really enjoyed the good humor and genuine thoughtfulness Jacobs brought to this experiment.
This book was educational and enjoyable. I was a little disappointed that he didn't really cover much of the New Testament and the research he did was rather half hearted whereas the Old Testament was covered quite well. I think it should be called, The Year of living the Laws of the Jews. However, that being said, if you are only expecting the Jewish aspect, this is a great book and it was a lot of fun to read. It was also great fun to learn about how his view of religion changed over the year. I recommend this book to everyone just because it makes you examine your own beliefs and behavior. And it was funny, too. I may even read it again sometime.
I'm a bit torn in how I feel about The Year of Living Biblically. Coming back to review this after a month of having read this, I feel like there's not much here that's incredibly memorable to me. It's a novel with a comic premise, but like all novels of this kind, I think the author makes an attempt to explore some of the positive things that religion brings to a practitioners life. In that, I feel he provided what I already suspected. That religion can help foster community, provide a person inner strength, and provide them with tools to better navigate some of the stresses in life (gratitude, positive regimens, etc).
It's obviously meant to approach things from an absurdist viewpoint, and the authors friends often time remind him of the context in which certain biblical laws / beliefs were held and why they shouldn't be taken literally. But for the sake of comedy, AJ Jacobs does just that and attempts to approach many things from a literal standpoint. There are moments of genuine humor here, but I found many of scenarios to be manufactured with expected outcomes (stoning heathens with pebbles - thud).
I know this novel will appeal to many people out there. It wasn't exactly my style of humor. I'd be lying if I said I didn't get anything out of it, but it wasn't as good as I had hoped.
It's obviously meant to approach things from an absurdist viewpoint, and the authors friends often time remind him of the context in which certain biblical laws / beliefs were held and why they shouldn't be taken literally. But for the sake of comedy, AJ Jacobs does just that and attempts to approach many things from a literal standpoint. There are moments of genuine humor here, but I found many of scenarios to be manufactured with expected outcomes (stoning heathens with pebbles - thud).
I know this novel will appeal to many people out there. It wasn't exactly my style of humor. I'd be lying if I said I didn't get anything out of it, but it wasn't as good as I had hoped.