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809 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
809 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
The Year Of Living Biblically By A.J Jacobs
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I have thoroughly enjoyed reading Jacobs' book. His honest candor and respectful attitude towards the Bible, made the read all the more interesting as the author presents himself as agnostic. A modern man looks at the Bible with fresh eyes! Two comments (by no means negative): I would have liked the approach to the NT to be as thorough as with the OT. And I would have loved to read an encounter between the author and folks from Jews for Jesus - who have bridged both worlds. Still, a great and easy read.
And a few good laughs come with it as well!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I have thoroughly enjoyed reading Jacobs' book. His honest candor and respectful attitude towards the Bible, made the read all the more interesting as the author presents himself as agnostic. A modern man looks at the Bible with fresh eyes! Two comments (by no means negative): I would have liked the approach to the NT to be as thorough as with the OT. And I would have loved to read an encounter between the author and folks from Jews for Jesus - who have bridged both worlds. Still, a great and easy read.
And a few good laughs come with it as well!
informative
reflective
medium-paced
I appreciated a lot about this book. But there were a few things that stuck in my craw. First, he would come so close to making some really poignant observations. And they could have been fleshed out in really meaningful ways. But instead the "day" would just end and he'd move on to a new day. This happened over and over again.
When he finally got to the New Testament, deciding not to believe in Jesus as the Christ really seemed to miss the entire point of the New Testament.
There were also places where he was clearly doing things to make the book more interesting...not that he needed to do those things to "live Biblically." And he would skip doing some things because it wasn't something he wanted to do or didn't make sense...but still tried to hit his son with a pool noodle? That entire part was just plain gross.
The book also began to drag in places and I got to the point that I just didn't care.
Ultimately he still seems to think that most Christians are conservative and all are evangelical. Never did a mainline church enter the picture, which I found really unfortunate. But we all have our biases. And ultimately, there are some we won't let go of. And for him, that's his.
Glad I read it. Glad it's over.
When he finally got to the New Testament, deciding not to believe in Jesus as the Christ really seemed to miss the entire point of the New Testament.
There were also places where he was clearly doing things to make the book more interesting...not that he needed to do those things to "live Biblically." And he would skip doing some things because it wasn't something he wanted to do or didn't make sense...but still tried to hit his son with a pool noodle? That entire part was just plain gross.
The book also began to drag in places and I got to the point that I just didn't care.
Ultimately he still seems to think that most Christians are conservative and all are evangelical. Never did a mainline church enter the picture, which I found really unfortunate. But we all have our biases. And ultimately, there are some we won't let go of. And for him, that's his.
Glad I read it. Glad it's over.
Very interesting journey in thinking about Bible. Humorous and heart-warming.
This book almost got 5 stars, but I am very stingy with my 5-star reviews. It kept me chuckling, introduced different perspectives in a surprisingly nonjudgemental way, inspired me to read the Bible more, and left me with one big unanswered question: How does one rent a sheep in Manhattan?
Excellent fun. If you've ever wondered how anyone could ever really follow the Bible, especially in this day and age, this is your book. What I found most interesting where some of the points the book made, particularly in regards to Biblical literalism, evangelism, and general spiritual practice. It doesn't hurt that the writing amuses and the book often delves deep into obscure Biblical traditions, either.
This book is hard for me to review. The author is an atheist who grew up in a (non-practicing) Jewish family. He attempts to follow all the rules of the Bible, which sounds insane. Because it is. There's hundreds of rules, some that make sense, and some that just don't. I thought for sure, since he is an atheist, that his goal would be to try to discredit the Bible. I thought he was attempting to ridicule religion. But he earnestly attempted to follow every rule, hoping he'd have an epiphany of some sort. It was endearing. And funny. And a bit redundant. But overall, a very interesting read.
I have literally no objection to the irreverence of this book. It’s just that if there is a mean spirited interpretation of anything, it’s Jacobs’s first impulse for a joke and that just gets SO OLD after a while. (Also, lbr, the “my wife is a nag but I love her anyway!” trope wasn’t great when this was written, but it’s aged even worse.) I think I might find it less frustrating if the end reflections weren’t genuinely thoughtful/moving, but knowing it’s for a cheap laugh somehow makes it worse.
I think A.J. Jacobs is great! I was attracted to this book because I thought it was a funny idea and I was interested to see how it turned out. I thought Jacobs was laugh-out-loud funny in many places, but always truthful and often insightful. I appreciated that he was entertaining but still earnest in his endeavor. He was fully committed to his "experiment" and didn't back down, even under situations of extreme embarassment.
I look forward to reading his other book.
I look forward to reading his other book.
Entertaining book whose title exactly describes it. Sections on various groups who interpret the Bible differently and reflections on how this affects the author’s thoughts about his own activities.
This was a very interesting and funny read. I found A.J.'s earnestness endearing.