Judge not 'The Year of Living Biblically' until you've actually read it

My good friend and distinguished newspaper colleague Josh Dewberry of The Monroe Journal recently loaned me a book that I thoroughly enjoyed, “The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible” by A.J. Jacobs.

One of the most interesting things about this book was the reaction that I got from people when I told them that I was reading it. I got the feeling that more than a few people I talked with about the book didn’t approve of it. It was a classic case of judging a book by its cover or, in this case, by its title. I got the impression that some folks, without having read the book, thought it was irreverent and mocked the Bible. The truth is that this isn’t the case. If it were, I wouldn’t be writing about it.

Published in 2007 by Simon & Schuster, this 416-page book describes how Jacobs, a self-described agnostic Jew living in New York City, decides to literally abide by every single rule in the Bible, including all of the commandments and laws in the Old and New Testaments. What follows is a fascinating look at what’s in - and what’s not in - the Bible, how those commandments and laws were actually followed in Biblical times and how those commandments and laws apply to the world today.

Jacobs, an editor at Esquire magazine, was assisted in this effort by a team of spiritual advisors, a wide variety of Bible translations and volumes of Biblical commentary. He also took a number of field trips, including trips to the Holy Land, to a Kentucky Creation Museum, to Jerry Falwell’s church in Virginia, to the Amish country and to snake-handling services in Tennessee. He also didn’t shave for a year and learned to play a 10-string harp. He even stoned an adulterer.

I was interested to learn that this book is being adapted into a movie, but no official release date has been set, according to the Internet Movie Database.

For those of you who have read and enjoyed “The Year of Living Biblically,” you might want to check out some of Jacobs’ other books. They include:

- The Know-It-All: One Man’s Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Man in the World

- My Life As an Experiment: One Man’s Humble Quest to Improve Himself

- Drop Dead Healthy: One Man’s Humble Quest for Bodily Perfection

- America Off-Line

- Esquire Presents: What It Feels Like

For more information about “The Year of Living Biblically” and Jacobs’ other books, visit his official Web site at ajjacobs.com. If you’re interested in buying any of these books, they’re available online through Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

In the end, “The Year of Living Biblically” is one of the best books that I’ve read in a long time. It’s laugh-out-loud funny and was also very educational. How many of you have read “The Year of Living Biblically”? What did you think about it? Let us know in the comments section below.