The Year of Living Biblically - A.J. Jacobs

A.J. Jacobs is not a religious man. But, he writes memoirs and he needs a hook. So, he decides to read the Bible and write down every single rule he can find. Then, he will try to live an entire year by those rules. Jacobs's book is presented like a diary, with chapters divided by month, and entries by day. Within each day, he tries to stick to one theme, idea, or rule. Jacobs consults various holy people to discuss the meaning of certain rules, and how certain fundamentalist or Orthodox groups attempt to abide by them. Overall, I think this is an interesting concept, though at times Jacobs's desire to live the Bible literally leads him to behave in ways that are probably out of sync with the spirit of the book. I particularly enjoyed his inclusion of stories about his wife (who seems quite tolerant) and his young son (who may be permanently scarred by some of the parenting techniques Jacobs adopted). I felt the whole thing got a little old about 2/3 of the way through, but all in all, Jacobs is pretty funny and while I don't think the year turned him into a religious zealot, I do think the idea of living a more purposeful and good life definitely rubbed off on him, and hopefully on all of his readers.