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810 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
810 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
I'll probably read anything A.J. Jacobs writes. I really enjoy his wit and observations. In this book, he reads the Bible (many versions), consults with various spiritual advisers, and goes on field trips in his quest to explore religious life. He starts out as an agnostic but ends up making many poignant (and humorous) realizations about the value of prayer and a faith-based life.
While I really enjoyed this book, I loved The Know-It-All even more. I would LOVE to meet this guy's wife -- man, has she ever put up with a lot for his book projects!
While I really enjoyed this book, I loved The Know-It-All even more. I would LOVE to meet this guy's wife -- man, has she ever put up with a lot for his book projects!
Entertaining and interesting read about an agnostic New Yorker experimenting with living according to the Bible for a year. The experiment is more focused on the old testament (due to the author's Jewish roots). Through the reading, I discovered traditions and perspectives which were interesting to understand religious communities from an extreme to another. Overall enjoyable read.
An interesting, amusing and fairly balanced view of the problems and benefits of religion.
A.J. Jacobs has written an account of his attempts to live as biblically as possible. He did this with sincerity, not to mock or expose the flaws of religion. A self-professed agnostic Jacobs became curious about religion after realizing that it plays a big part in our cultures and lives, whether we realize it or not. So he embarked on a quest to learn all he could about the Bible and follow it to the letter as much as possible. He didn't anticipate the lessons he would learn and the life changes he would walk away with.
Before starting his official year (this isn't his first quest that was year long in length, he also read the Encyclopedia from A-Z over the course of a year) he studied up by reading the Bible all the way through and making plans of how to go about tackling this project. He gathered a team of spiritual advisers (Rabbi's, a retired Lutheran Pastor, etc) and prepared his family. His wife was hoping for something a little less intrusive in their lives but what can you do? She's a good sport, btw, a very good sport. Jacobs wonders if by years end will he still be an agnostic, an atheist, or a believer on some level. Time, and experiment, would literally tell.
What I appreciated about Jacobs experiment is that he wasn't mocking faith, he was earnestly seeking out what it means to believe. He was open to understanding and learning and because of that he did in fact walk away with some life changes and a greater understanding of faith. It also helped that Jacobs is pretty hysterical and he writes so well that he is enjoyable to read. Not too mention some of the things he did were downright gut-busting funny and at times I was laughing so hard I was crying! There's the key for the reader. You can't pick up this book with a critical spirit, i.e. if you are a believer of God and you pick up this book because you want to rip Jacobs to shreds for "mocking" your faith then don't even bother. We must be willing to let go of our critical spirits, as Jacobs was willing, and take a look at the Bible through the eyes of someone who is sincerely trying to understand. And be willing to laugh a little, sheesh loosen up. Laughing doesn't mean you are laughing at, just laughing with.
Sometimes those who don't know any better are able to shed some light on the practices we engage in with a profound insight that we are too bound up to see for ourselves. Jacobs came up with some good points during his experiment, they were good enough in fact for me to jot down because I wanted to think about them more! For the sake of this review I won't list them here but I will list them over at my blog (beththebookworm.blogspot.com).
All in all the book, in my opinion, deserves its five stars for Jacobs writing, his ability to see through this experiment a whole year, and his willingness to learn and expand his thoughts. If only I had that much gumption, if only we all did.
Before starting his official year (this isn't his first quest that was year long in length, he also read the Encyclopedia from A-Z over the course of a year) he studied up by reading the Bible all the way through and making plans of how to go about tackling this project. He gathered a team of spiritual advisers (Rabbi's, a retired Lutheran Pastor, etc) and prepared his family. His wife was hoping for something a little less intrusive in their lives but what can you do? She's a good sport, btw, a very good sport. Jacobs wonders if by years end will he still be an agnostic, an atheist, or a believer on some level. Time, and experiment, would literally tell.
What I appreciated about Jacobs experiment is that he wasn't mocking faith, he was earnestly seeking out what it means to believe. He was open to understanding and learning and because of that he did in fact walk away with some life changes and a greater understanding of faith. It also helped that Jacobs is pretty hysterical and he writes so well that he is enjoyable to read. Not too mention some of the things he did were downright gut-busting funny and at times I was laughing so hard I was crying! There's the key for the reader. You can't pick up this book with a critical spirit, i.e. if you are a believer of God and you pick up this book because you want to rip Jacobs to shreds for "mocking" your faith then don't even bother. We must be willing to let go of our critical spirits, as Jacobs was willing, and take a look at the Bible through the eyes of someone who is sincerely trying to understand. And be willing to laugh a little, sheesh loosen up. Laughing doesn't mean you are laughing at, just laughing with.
Sometimes those who don't know any better are able to shed some light on the practices we engage in with a profound insight that we are too bound up to see for ourselves. Jacobs came up with some good points during his experiment, they were good enough in fact for me to jot down because I wanted to think about them more! For the sake of this review I won't list them here but I will list them over at my blog (beththebookworm.blogspot.com).
All in all the book, in my opinion, deserves its five stars for Jacobs writing, his ability to see through this experiment a whole year, and his willingness to learn and expand his thoughts. If only I had that much gumption, if only we all did.
A.J. Jacobs, a secular Jew, is curious about religion. Is he missing something? Can he raise moral children without religion? Can he get a bestselling book out of these contemplations? He decides to completely immerse himself in the bible – both testaments, for one year.
He is sincere in his quest, I think, or at least sincere enough; this is not the book version of that open letter to Dr. Laura from a few years ago. However, I couldn’t help but feel as I was reading that he kept missing the point. There was no cohesive plan or theory or even mindset, he just bounces from living one literal interpretation of the bible to the next with little reflection on its spiritual value. He takes a shot at telling nothing but the truth for instance which generally results in his being unnecessarily rude in cases where he could have simply remained silent.
I did learn a few things and some of it is funny (the part where he stones an adulterer actually made me laugh out loud on a bus) but there is not enough funniness or epiphany or even simple discovery along the way to make it fully worth the effort to read it, let alone the effort it must have taken to actually do it.
He is sincere in his quest, I think, or at least sincere enough; this is not the book version of that open letter to Dr. Laura from a few years ago. However, I couldn’t help but feel as I was reading that he kept missing the point. There was no cohesive plan or theory or even mindset, he just bounces from living one literal interpretation of the bible to the next with little reflection on its spiritual value. He takes a shot at telling nothing but the truth for instance which generally results in his being unnecessarily rude in cases where he could have simply remained silent.
I did learn a few things and some of it is funny (the part where he stones an adulterer actually made me laugh out loud on a bus) but there is not enough funniness or epiphany or even simple discovery along the way to make it fully worth the effort to read it, let alone the effort it must have taken to actually do it.
Perhaps I would have gotten more out of this if I was Jewish.
The introduction of the book led me to believe that author would try to live both the new and old testaments to the best of his ability. I was looking forward to hearing about the NT switch after the OT because I thought it would provide an interesting picture of how life was for early Christians who struggled with what the resurrection of Christ and its impact on Judaism of the day. At the very least, I thought there would be some humorous stories as he tried to live out the Great Commission or great his Christian brothers with a "holy kiss". The NT part of the book seemed rushed and overlooked. It was kind of a disappointment after so much detail went into the OT. Still, I applaud his effort and the appreciate the care, detail and respect with which he handled the task. It was an extremely good read.
I had been looking for a book on religion to just get better educated on all the differences out there so when this was suggested for my bookclub I was excited. I really enjoyed this - it didn't go into ALL religions but it did cover a lot of things I didn't know about while being very funny. There were a lot of laugh-out-loud moments. I'm going to add AJ's previous book on my list of things to read someday.