The Year of Living Biblically

May 2013

Pat - I identified a lot with how he interpreted the Bible. Not that I've done the things he's done, of course, but I've often thought that things would look pretty bizarre if you did exactly what it said to do. He reminded me of a more thoughtful Dave Barry. I found it fascinating that in all his interactions with the extreme faiths, the one that almost converted him was the snake charming church. Even though it was often contrived I thought he pulled it off and would recommend. It was more thoughtful than I was expecting and I liked his internal monologue. I thought his realization that his behavior was affected by his outlook was genuine and moving.

Artie -  liked the idea and thought it would be an entertaining read. However, he's not a fan of books written simply to make money, The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother for example, and Artie thought this book was written for just that. Jacobs would pick an obscure Old Testament rule and then tell some funny stories about following it, which became redundant and eventually not funny. He found it tough to get through and disagreed with Jacob's stance on cognitive dissonance. It's not realistic to be able to act one's way into feelings; changing from the inside out is better. Artie wondered if Jacobs became more thankful due to his biblical living or just because it's common sense. He liked what Jacobs had to say about the power of rituals and shared about the time he witnessed a Bris and what a powerful ceremony it was.  

Leticia - thought this was a great pick that she normally wouldn't have read. She thought Jacobs went to a lot of lengths to get his story and liked the fact that he gave space in the book to such extreme beliefs as the Creationist's Museum.  Letitia shared that her dad not only read the Bible several times through, but also translated it from Greek to English just for fun. She found that he didn't have much to say about Christianity. Overall she thought it an entertaining book that made her laugh and think.

Sandy - gave him credit for taking things so far as to live a whole year being a weirdo, and admitted that it got her to think. She loved how he interwove the story with his wife. She was glad he talked to so many crazy people. Sandy never read the Bible, but went to church every Sunday as a child and eventually realized she didn't believe in Catholicism finding it nothing but rituals and rules like girls shouldn't wear black patent leather shoes. Becky said she was raised Catholic and didn't have this rule, to which Sandy replied, "Well, we know who wore patent leather shoes in this group, don’t we?" She thinks that faith is something you can't pray into having but comes as a part of one's chemical makeup. She warned us that if she ever did become a believer, she would become our worst enemy because she would hound us with how much we needed God.

Becky - thought this was more interesting than funny. She questioned whether his experiment was much of a personal challenge, describing him as a lunatic who took advantage of his OCD tendencies to be able to stick to it and pull it off. She found it funny that he didn't seem to care about what people thought. Becky thought his wife was the funny one, he was just crazy. She liked reading about him trying to be honest, to not covet or be prideful, not saying anything at all in order to avoid saying something sinful. She found these struggles to be enjoyable and thought provoking, but somewhat redundant.

Miles - felt he could just notch this into his recommend zone despite the book's gimmicky approach. Its snappy humor often undermined the very points Jacobs was trying to make, and as a result it was often disingenuous, to the point that he could have scripted out much of the book before even beginning the  experiment. He liked the fact that Jacobs was a NYC secular Jew and thought this gave him a good context from which to draw.  He liked the pace and thought he did a good job with all the different group's perspectives, but overall found it too much about Jacobs himself. Miles thought these parts dragged, but the book picked up when he was writing about other people.  He found the subject matter fascinating and is considering rereading the Bible. 

K’Lynn - also found it redundant and thought it skimmed along the surface too much. She wanted more in-depth information.  She didn't think that his sacrifices were as big as he made them out to be. It did have its funny moments, like when he bonked heads with the guy he was attempting to stone for working on the Sabbath. Parts like this reminded her of David Sedaris and she wanted more of them. It had a disingenuous feeling to her, but she finds herself referring to the book often and thinks it will resonate with her for a while.

Carolyn - found it occasionally funny, but mostly dumb. She has a hard time with attention seekers and so the author bugged her a bit. None of this really would have been out of the ordinary when it was written. She appreciated that he sought out different religious views and tried to understand where they were coming from. Also, since you can defend virtually any behavior through the Bible she questioned his motives. She thought it dealt with the subject matter on only a very surface level, and that he never gave a good sense of how much time he put into his experiences. Carolyn shared that there's a similar book from a women’s viewpoint called A Year of Biblical Womanhood.

Michelle -  Rating 3
Sorry to miss the bookclub, but it was worth it, since my daughter Cameron qualified for State Golf!

Anyway, I started this book with no expectations whatsoever. Which I have to say I am thankful for. The writing was easy enough to read, the author seemed to be somewhat witty in his words.  At first, I thought it was going to be very interesting since he was buying so many books on his subject and really searching and educating himself with his quest.

I then started to feel like he was making fun of the Bible and all of its teachings. He started to lose me here, and then after seeing how he couldn’t even make it through one weekend for Sabbath, and not check his email, etc. I started to get angry at him. I kept marking bookmarks like crazy. I couldn’t understand why he even wanted to write this book, when I felt his heart was not into this quest.

I just didn’t get the point to the reason of why he decided on this topic. It seemed like an attention getter. Or to make money, and to sell a lot of books on Amazon. I know that he was committed to this project, but his wife seemed only to support him, because of monetary value of the book.

There are so many different views on the Bible and it would be hard to try and follow the Old Testament.  The bible was written so many centuries ago, and today our lives are very different. As a Christian and a follower of Jesus Christ, we try and follow the New Testament mainly, because there are so many wonderful teachings we can actually live by.

I can’t say I am glad I read this book, or if I would read anything else by this author. It seems pointless to me to write all of the negatives I felt reading the book. My only hope for A.J is that maybe his heart will be a little softer now with his experience  of the Bible.

I gave this a 3 with the enjoyment of reading the scriptures in the book that he quoted.

AJ Jacob's TED Talk

Next Pick: The Work of Wolves, a western by Kent Meyers