Saturday, March 23, 2013

Book 22 the bible as humor

Next, I finished up another book I'd started a while back and then put away.



The Year of Living Biblically by A. J. Jacobs. 



And once again, I had to go back and re-read most of what I'd read before.  Old brain don't retain.

My recommendation is, yes! mostly.  It's not as hilarious as the cover would suggest, but it's sincere, honest, really honest, and real.   He admits up front what his motivation is--he's going to spend a year observing the Bible as literally as possible--in order to write a book about it.  But you find out along the way that he has some ulterior motives...to figure out his heritage and how he might connect to it.  To become a better person.  To see if acting as though you believe in God might actually make you start to believe in God.  And to learn, learn, learn...about this mysterious thing that is The Bible--it has started a thousand wars, comforted a million souls, and damned a million more to hell for all eternity.

If you're at all interested in religion, it will delight you as well as amuse you, and you'll end up liking A. J. Jacobs and all his highly functional OCD.  After all, what's not to like about a guy who blows a horn at the beginning of each month (Jewish as well as western), stones an adulterer (with pebbles), pays a shochet to sacrifice a chicken for him, and tapes the ten commandments to his forehead?

His wife should  write a companion volume--The Year of Living with a Madman.

No comments: