From the bestselling author of THE-KNOW-IT-ALL comes a
fascinating and timely exploration of religion and the Bible.
Raised in a secular family but increasingly interested in
the relevance of faith in our modern world, A.J. Jacobs
decides to dive in headfirst and attempt to obey the Bible
as literally as possible for one full year. He vows to
follow the Ten Commandments. To be fruitful and multiply. To
love his neighbor. But also to obey the hundreds of less
publicized rules: to avoid wearing clothes made of mixed
fibers; to play a ten-string harp; to stone adulterers.
The resulting spiritual journey is at once funny and
profound, reverent and irreverent, personal and universal
and will make you see history's most influential book with
new eyes.
Jacobs's quest transforms his life even more radically than
the year spent reading the entire Encyclopedia Britannica
for The Know-It-All. His beard grows so unruly that he is
regularly mistaken for a member of ZZ Top. He immerses
himself in prayer, tends sheep in the Israeli desert,
battles idolatry, and tells the absolute truth in all
situations - much to his wife's chagrin.
Throughout the book, Jacobs also embeds himself in a
cross-section of communities that take the Bible literally.
He tours a Kentucky-based creationist museum and sings hymns
with Pennsylvania Amish. He dances with Hasidic Jews in
Brooklyn and does Scripture study with Jehovah's Witnesses.
He discovers ancient biblical wisdom of startling relevance.
And he wrestles with seemingly archaic rules that baffle the
twenty-first-century brain.
Jacobs's extraordinary undertaking yields unexpected
epiphanies and challenges. A book that will charm readers
both secular and religious, The Year of Living Biblically is
part Cliff Notes to the Bible, part memoir, and part look
into worlds unimaginable. Thou shalt not be able to put it down.
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