A.J. Jacobs is a journalist and editor of Esquire magazine, who has some really interesting ideas for memoirs. I first heard about Jacobs by a friend who read his book; The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World, in which he all 32 volumes of the 2002 edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. While I’m yet to read this book (but I will) I decided to read The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to follow the Bible as Literally as Possible.

The book follows the journey of A.J’s alter ego; Jacob who read through the bible and then spent a year trying to live by it. Jacob tries to be honest, give up the Sabbath, pray daily, go forth and multiply, and any of the bazaar laws from the old testament, such as; trying to stone people, blowing a ram horn at the beginning of every month, tassels on his clothing, binding money to himself, even wearing white and never trimming his beard.

The Year of Living Biblically is a funny journey, A.J claims to be agnostic, so it makes the book interesting the way he tries to find the real intent behind every rule he follows. I’m a big fan of A.J’s wife, who while wasn’t pleased with him turning into a crazy man, accepted his choice to do this and even have some fun with it. If you are interested in reading an amusing memoir or just interested in seeing the effects reading the bible can have, I highly recommend this book.