The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs – A Review
This post could also be titled “How I bought a book thinking the author would be flippant about the Bible but was pleasantly surprised and a bit ashamed of my previous assumption”. The title could also be “One of the first times I’ve ever read a book, then purchased a book it cited and decided to read the entire Bible”.
Any of those would work I suppose. I couldn’t tell you why, or how this book stuck to me with such vigor, I first saw it in a Borders in New York while waiting for the MegaBus to take me back to Baltimore. Did I mention this was back in December? When have I ever remembered something for 5 months? I had added it to both my Amazon.com and .co.uk wish lists as a reminder, but the truth is, I often thought of the book at other times throughout the past 5 months.
I finally purchased the book from Amazon.co.uk with a certificate from Christmas (fittingly enough) and read it on the train down to London. Silly me, I purchased the large print edition, something which Nick hasn’t stopped taking the mick out of me for. For all the seriousness of the topic I found myself constantly laughing out loud, loudly, usually in public. The section on passover and “ONLY HOLY TOPICS!” had me laughing uncontrollably on the tube and I was continually forcing Nick to read paragraphs and pages while I sat in embarrassing fits of laughter.
Despite my original assumptions the author was anything but flip with the Bible and his resulting journey. The book has even encouraged me to have my own personal journey with the Bible. As a child I was anything but interested in church, religion, or the Bible. To encourage me to sit still in church my mother allowed me to read a huge book of Bible stories – so I thought I knew a fair amount. After reading Mr. Jacob’s book – I realized I am painfully ignorant. Take the story of the twins Perez and Zerah – I had no idea the story of their birth (or they themselves) existed. This could be because the story of a daughter-in-law who disguises herself as a prostitute and sleeps with her father-in-law thus producing the twins most likely wasn’t covered in my children’s Bible stories book, but it’s clear I’ve been missing out.
To assist with his quest to live the Bible as literally as possible he enlists a team of spiritual advisers from several different walks of life. I found it interesting that even the most devout find it nearly impossible to live the Bible to the letter and the accompanying insight from his spiritual advisers encouraged me to dig deeper to interpret as well. Anytime he found a law that might seem “silly”, he didn’t just laugh it off – he worked hard to figure out the reason and the meaning behind it.
After finishing I was left with a deeper sense of respect for organized religion, and for those who are able to eloquently deliberate on the Bible; I’ve also been left with a hunger to learn, read and interpret more. On the train back up from London I purchased Reading the Bible Again for the First Time by Marcus J. Borg, which was cited quite a few times throughout Mr. Jacob’s book. I also plan on reading the Bible the whole way through, cover to cover, once I return to the US.
I highly encourage everyone to read this book, whether you haven’t cracked a Bible in years or if you visit with your Bible every night – I think there is so much for everyone to experience in The Year of Living Biblically.
ps. Coincidentally the intern/slave mentioned in The Year of Living Biblically wrote a book called The Unlikely Disciple (aka ANOTHER book in my wish list). Small world 
May 6th, 2009 at 7:20 pm
I read this book awhile ago, and liked it. I’m a Christian and really appreciated the way he approached the Bible. I also read A.J. Jacobs’ first book, The Know-It-All, which I think I liked even better.
And our book club just finished reading The Unlikely Disciple, and it was really good as well! That kid is a great writer.