Take a photo of a barcode or cover
stingo 's review for:
A. J. Jacobs' claim to authorial fame is taking on year long projects and then writing books about his experiences. I have not read his previous effort (The Know-It-All, about a year spent reading the encyclopedia), but I liked The Year of Living Biblically. Jacobs' intention is to follow (as best he can) a literal interpretation of the Bible for a year. This includes not only its moral teachings but also day to day living (e.g., wearing tassels on one's clothes, or not eating fruit from a tree that's under 4 years old.
Given the hugeness of the undertaking, it is probably understandable that the book seems a bit scattershot to me. Each chapter covers a month, and there can be any number of topics (both related and unrelated) that can appear within that month. Despite that sense of randomness, he does cover a wide variety of issues related to the Bible and its interpretation. I think one of the takeaways I got was that the Bible is hugely complex and it would be impossible to truly live by ALL of the rules in it simultaneously all the time. Also, those who believe in the Bible are so widely varied that you can find just about any mixture of beliefs and attributes. That said, a Jacobs is a tour guide with his own failings, but who always strives to make himself better/live closer to the Biblical ideal.
Given the hugeness of the undertaking, it is probably understandable that the book seems a bit scattershot to me. Each chapter covers a month, and there can be any number of topics (both related and unrelated) that can appear within that month. Despite that sense of randomness, he does cover a wide variety of issues related to the Bible and its interpretation. I think one of the takeaways I got was that the Bible is hugely complex and it would be impossible to truly live by ALL of the rules in it simultaneously all the time. Also, those who believe in the Bible are so widely varied that you can find just about any mixture of beliefs and attributes. That said, a Jacobs is a tour guide with his own failings, but who always strives to make himself better/live closer to the Biblical ideal.