The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible

What would it require for a person to live all the commandments of the Bible for an entire year?
That is the question that animates this hilarious, quixotic, thought-provoking memoir from Jacobs
(The Know-It-All). He didn't just keep the Bible's better-known moral laws (being honest, tithing
to charity and trying to curb his lust), but also the obscure and unfathomable ones: not mixing
wool with linen in his clothing; calling the days of the week by their ordinal numbers to avoid
voicing the names of pagan gods; trying his hand at a 10-string harp; growing a ZZ Top beard;
eating crickets; and paying the babysitter in cash at the end of each work day. (He considered
some rules, such as killing magicians, too legally questionable to uphold.) In his attempts at
living the Bible to the letter, Jacobs hits the road in highly entertaining fashion to meet other
literalists, including Samaritans in Israel, snake handlers in Appalachia, Amish in Lancaster
County, Pa., and biblical creationists in Kentucky. Throughout his journey, Jacobs comes across as
a generous and thoughtful (and, yes, slightly neurotic) participant observer, lacing his story with
absurdly funny cultural commentary as well as nuanced insights into the impossible task of biblical
literalism.

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