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817 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
817 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
Although the premise and the year-long effort are both commendable, this quote from the author concisely sums up the elitist undertone and religious mockery that prevented me from enjoying this book:
“I’ve been a moderate New York liberal all my life. Will I really be able to get inside the mind of a conservative evangelical from Virginia?” - A.J. Jacobs
I’m a conservative Christian who was born and raised in, you guessed it, the Commonwealth.
“I’ve been a moderate New York liberal all my life. Will I really be able to get inside the mind of a conservative evangelical from Virginia?” - A.J. Jacobs
I’m a conservative Christian who was born and raised in, you guessed it, the Commonwealth.
I was kinda worried about this book at first... When I was looking for it at the store, I couldn't find it anywhere.
Of course, I was looking in the religion section instead of the comedy section, so that's why.
Turns out this book was fantastically well-written and deep. AJ does a great job of making it convincing--I'd be lying if I said that the idea didn't intrigue me. And that Mandy would break up with me if I tried the beard thing.
Long story short... Jacobs manages to take a sensitive subject and have fun with it, while still managing to keep a sense of humor about the whole process. Not an easy task.
Still, it manages to appeal to both sides of the spectrum: the religious side of me loved seeing a unique take on things; the skeptical side of me is fascinated by the battle between his rational and spiritual side.
Great read for anyone interested in religion. Even people that aren't would love it.
Of course, I was looking in the religion section instead of the comedy section, so that's why.
Turns out this book was fantastically well-written and deep. AJ does a great job of making it convincing--I'd be lying if I said that the idea didn't intrigue me. And that Mandy would break up with me if I tried the beard thing.
Long story short... Jacobs manages to take a sensitive subject and have fun with it, while still managing to keep a sense of humor about the whole process. Not an easy task.
Still, it manages to appeal to both sides of the spectrum: the religious side of me loved seeing a unique take on things; the skeptical side of me is fascinated by the battle between his rational and spiritual side.
Great read for anyone interested in religion. Even people that aren't would love it.
A fun and funny ride through the Bible from a man who wants to know why it's been as influential over the years as it has been. It's missing the righteous anger of Rapture Ready, but it makes up for it with a light, informational tone. Better reading for someone not disgusted with modern religion.
I liked the premise and I did learn some stuff but generally it felt way too all over the place.
Really interesting and well written. I was disappointed that the author had to constantly mention his non-belief. There was a really great passage where he was praising God one day on a trip to Israel, and the moment he had was very inspiring, but at the end of the paragraph he added "if I believed in God" or something to that effect. It really took something away from some of his experiences for me. More pictures of the events he went to would have been nice as well.
This book is a ton of fun. For anyone unfamiliar with A.J. Jacobs, just picture the journalist version of a method actor like Daniel Day Lewis. In other words, he doesn't just study his subject matter, he fully plunges into his various projects. Which has led him to reading the entire Encyclopedia Brittanica, watching Netflix movies nonstop for a month, giving the Radical Honesty Movement a try, etc.
The results are projects full of honesty, integrity, and obsession. By integrity I mean that he could have made a fraction of the life changes he did and still call it a "year in the life." And I appreciate how there is little/no judgement in his approach; sure, he places himself around some crazy people, but you never get the sense he is mocking them. And you always have the sense he is trying his best to experience the emotions/ideologies of those he's meeting.
This book is also filled with a lot of humor. I ended up reading this book out loud to my wife on road trips and I'm so glad it worked out that way; the humor was more enjoyable in real time. My eyes didn't pass too quickly over the funnier moments.
So yes, I recommend this book for anyone interested in religion. Fun read.
The results are projects full of honesty, integrity, and obsession. By integrity I mean that he could have made a fraction of the life changes he did and still call it a "year in the life." And I appreciate how there is little/no judgement in his approach; sure, he places himself around some crazy people, but you never get the sense he is mocking them. And you always have the sense he is trying his best to experience the emotions/ideologies of those he's meeting.
This book is also filled with a lot of humor. I ended up reading this book out loud to my wife on road trips and I'm so glad it worked out that way; the humor was more enjoyable in real time. My eyes didn't pass too quickly over the funnier moments.
So yes, I recommend this book for anyone interested in religion. Fun read.
I really recommend this on audio. It's funny, smart, and with striking thoughts on faith and religion at unexpected moments. No matter your belief system-- it's a great read.
A great book, it was funny and engaging while being serious and thoughtful. I found some parts a little tedious, so I ended up skimming some passages. But I really enjoyed reading it over all and found it thought provoking.
I went through several stages of opinions on this book. At first, I found Jacobs’s secular perspective on applying many of the biblical guidelines interesting because it was a different perspective than the evangelical one I had grown up with. I appreciated his respect for a wide range of Jewish and Christian groups. Then, the book got repetitive. Just like the previous biblical suggestions or laws, applying them in modern-day New York is difficult and strange, especially when applying them as literally as Jacobs does. Without a conviction on way or the other—either devoting himself to God or rejecting him altogether—the book lacks substance. It seems like a man with a book deal just trying to create memoir material for himself, and I don’t think that usually works very well. I did re-engage a little with the New Testament portion because his perspective on it as a secular Jewish man is very different from my own. I read this book for my book club, and I don’t regret reading it, but I wouldn’t recommend it.
In all honesty, this was one of the most enjoyable books I have read in a while. A.J. Jacob's exploits as an agnostic diving into the world that is Bible literalism are both funny, like insisting that he carry around a stool to sit on, and eye-opening, like the fact that he must use that stool to prevent from sitting where a menstruating woman may have sat. His writing will make you be glad that you are an atheist and thank God for his love at the same time.