Jenna ❤ ❀ ❤'s Reviews > The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible As Literally As Possible

Unless you are a member of the clergy or a fundamentalist Christian, you probably don't know much about the Bible. You might have heard the nice stories they tell in church, and how Jesus did many miracles, was killed, and then rose from the dead on the 3rd day. Any of the not-so-nice stuff though? Probably not. Before going any further, I need to say: If you are a clergy(wo)man without a sense of humor or you're a fundamentalist Christian, you might want to stop reading this review right here as there's a chance you'll be offended. Everyone else, let's continue.....

First, have you ever been sitting around and thought, "I really wish I knew the Bible better. Maybe I should read it."? You probably belong to one of 2 groups. Group A: Why the hell would anyone want to do that? or, Group B: Well, yes, actually, I have.

Now, if you belong to the second group, you might have then gone and picked up a Bible and, being a Goodreads member and thus obviously someone who likes to read, devoured all 66 books in 12.5 hours. Or, after reading some of the more interesting parts of Genesis and Exodus, found Leviticus a little too weird with all those laws, and even if you managed to wade through them..... Numbers? Well, you deserve a medal if you were disciplined enough to get through that book! (Yay, I get a medal!)

"So-and-so, son of So-and-so, begat So-and-so and then lived 364 years." Repeat that sentence many times, changing the names and number of years. And then onto, "The Israelites left Ramses and camped at Succoth. They left Succoth and camped at Etham. They left Etham and camped at...." You get the picture. I know, boring, right? All those names of people and places is enough to drive all but the most religious into their own personal hell. Then again, this is Goodreads and some of us would rather read that than nothing at all.

However, since most of us live near libraries or have other access to a plethura of books, both print and electronic, we need not force ourselves to read such tedious things. "But wait!", you say, "I still really wish I knew the Bible better. What can I do?" Well, you can pick up a copy of The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs for one thing.

A.J. Jacobs, a secular Jew, became curious about religion and decided he would take a year to learn the Bible better and to obey all its commandments as much as possible. For some things, this is easy and makes other like you -- being kind and forgiving, sharing with others, helping them out, etc. For others... well, let's just say that following the Bible is going to make you look bat-shit crazy. Never shaving your beard, refusing to wear clothes made of two different fibers, tying money to your hand when you go out, handling venomous snakes, blowing from a horn on the first of the month, refusing to touch anything an "unclean" woman (meaning one who has started her period in the last 7 days) has touched, including sitting in the same seat she has. And on and on and on. Then what do you do about things that will get you thrown into prison in our modern times? How do you stone someone because they committed adultery? How do you kill your child because he hit you?

Mr. Jacobs reads several versions of the Bible and speaks with leaders of many different types of Judaism and Christianity to get their interpretations. If you don't already know the Bible, you will probably be quite shocked at some of the things that are in it. There's a lot that Mr. Jacobs does not mention (like how wonderful it is to bash your enemies babies heads against the rocks, found in Psalms), but still, you'll be surprised and pleasantly amused. Mr Jacobs writes wittily and often in a self-depreciating way, as he takes us along on his Biblical year. His poor wife -- I don't know how she stayed with him!

If you know the Bible, you might find some of this tedious, as I did, but it's still quite fun to read. Of course, he doesn't go through each and every command in the Bible, but picks and chooses what to do and to write about. However, isn't that what everyone does? Pick and choose? It's impossible to follow, or even attempt to follow, all the commands in the Bible. Not only will it get you thrown in prison or a psychiatric hospital, it is full of contradictions, starting with the simple "Thou shalt not kill". In other places of the Bible, we're told to kill our enemies, kill people for various infractions, etc. There's nothing easy in the Bible, and anyone who says they follow it is mistaken. They are following what they want to follow, and ignoring a whole lot of other stuff.

3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 because I'd have liked it even more if I wasn't already aware of all those commands he tried to follow.