I was intrigued by this book, The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possibly, as soon as I heard about it. It seemed like an interesting way to learn more about religion and to hear another opinion about God’s word without having to endure the slog through another dry read. This book is witty, insightful, and a joy to read. There were some areas that I wish he developed more, but he does a good job covering a huge range of Biblical topics from the wearing of tassels to snake handling.
I would not recommend this book to people who believe that the Bible IS the word of God as they will call it heretical and dismiss it outright, but for those who believe that it contains the word of God, this is a worthwhile read. This book will make you consider areas of the Bible that you had not before. It may give you insight as to why the Bible calls us to do things that we don’t fully understand.
As for A.J., a self-proclaimed agnostic, it is interesting to read his own personal transformation: from purposeful prayer to inspired prayer; from A.J. to Jacob and back to A.J.?; from Jewish by genealogy to Jewish by life choice. One of my favorite scenes was his time locked in his bathroom – did the handle fall off or perhaps a greater hand in his lesson? A.J.’s voice is friendly and interesting and though most of us probably would have given him wide berth in his white un-mixed fiber costume, you will want to continue to hear from him. In fact, I plan to try to get his other book The Know It All out of the library today.
(Oh wait - I have to read Suite Francaise for the Book Club - see how this becomes a problem?)
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