The Year of Living Biblically, by A. J. Jacobs

Laugh out loud funny, insightful and readable are three ways I would describe The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humbe Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible, by A. J. Jacobs editor at large for Esquire magazine.

The Year is a strong follow-up to Jacobs' previous book, The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World, in which he chronicled his marathon trek reading the entire Encyclipedia Britanica. Immersion journalism, I believe, is the correct phrase to label Jacobs' efforts. He takes on a large wacky committment and writes about it with a smooth wit, which makes his book (I've only read the one) flow quickly.

If anyone claims to take the Bible completely, %100, literally, that they believe every part and follow the entire thing, I will simply point them to this book. Jacobs' book is, for me, the difinitive proof that we pick and choose which parts of the Bible we follow.

A self-proclaimed agnostic, Jacobs' reads the Bible as a rule book, which most people of faith would say misses the point. But the result are quite simply hilarious.

Jacobs' daily journal entries are full of stories that came about from his strict rule following, insights he gained from attempting to access his spiritual side, and struggles he's having with everyday life, work, his wife, or in-laws.

The Bible commands that if a menstrating woman sits in a seat then the seat is then unclean. This became a problem very quickly as his wife smirking told him after beginning her period that she'd made sure to sit in every chair in their home. Jacobs quickly bought a small portable stool to take with him where ever he went, including subway stations, work and restaurants.

There's a lot of commands to stone adulterers in the Bible. One of my favorite moments in the book is when Jacob meets a man claiming to be a bone-a-fide adulterer and in fact stones him... (with tiny pebbles).

There's the scene where he sacrifices a live chicken, the time he gets a slave, the day he gets locked in the bathroom, the moment he tried telling no lies, and of course the fact that he's so proud when his wife gets pregnant during the year because he's following the command to "be fruitful and multiply." All left me chuckling.

Jacobs also provides a service to readers by exploring the different camps of Christianity and Judaism. He visits with a snake handling preacher, goes to the Creation Museum, talks with a group of homosexual evangelicals, meets with Hassidic Jews, gets into the politics of liberal Christians, conservative, fundamentalist and everyone in between. This book displays a myriad of different expressions of the two faiths represented in the Bible.

He also writes about the joy he found in being more thankful, and his love for volunteering at a homeless shelter (there's some funny material from that as well). He learns to be a better dad and by the end confesses that this journey has made him a better person. Though he wasn't converted by this project he does consider himself a "reverent agnostic."

The book is worth a gander. It's written well, with a certain quipiness you'd expect from an Esquire editor. However, it was a bit long. About 330 pages, I found myself wanting to be done by the tenth month. I'm glad I finished it because of some funny and insightful material near the end, but I wouldn't recomment it without the length warning.

It's definitely a book to be remembered and will always result in funny stories when someone plucks it from my book shelf. I recomment it for light reading, perhaps skimming, to anyone looking to learn a bit about Biblical interpretation and for laughs.