The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible
by A. J. Jacobs falls squarely into that category of memoirs/ non-fiction that I like best. I've seen the term "stunt memoir" used to perfectly describe this type of book and would definitely apply it to this one. Jacobs has decided to follow ALL of the rules in the Bible as literally as possible (bet you couldn't figure that out from the title). He spends the first 9 months of his year with the Old Testament before finishing up in the New. What did I think? Well, I enjoyed it and I went looking for Jacob's other books, but it took me a very long time to finish it up, I'm talking Months. I'd put it down and walk away and there was nothing about it that compelled me to pick it back up.
Jacobs spends a lot of time talking about how this experiment has changed his view of religion and I think that was the most interesting part, to me. He starts off the book as a non-believer of Jewish descent, but as the book goes on he has moments of pure belief. He is as startled by this as you would expect and I enjoyed his honestly. In addition to deciphering the rules on his own, he consults with quite a few other religious scholars and the differing view on things is also quite interesting. Overall a good book, but not one of my favorites for the year.
How do you feel about "stunt memoirs"? Do you have a favorite? Do you prefer straight biographies? Do you think that writers can be completely honest when they know they are doing a trick for a book? Or do you think they probably fudge a bit to sound better? (Hello, James Frey
.)If you're interested in other books about personal religious experience, I also read and enjoyed:
Rapture Ready!: Adventures in the Parallel Universe of Christian Pop Culture
by Daniel Radosh (my review)The Faith Club: A Muslim, A Christian, A Jew-- Three Women Search for Understanding
by Idliby, Oliver and Warner (my review)Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia
by Elizabeth Gilbert (pre-blog)Girl Meets God: On the Path to a Spiritual Life
by Lauren Winner (also pre-blog)You can find AJ Jacobs online here, but it doesn't look like he updates very often.
The Year of Living Biblically by AJ Jacobs
Simon & Schuster
2008
416 pages
PS. I decided to number my 2010 reads in the subject line of the post. I like the idea that I'll be able to tell at a glance where I am.
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