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Monday, May 19, 2014

the healthiest biblical know-it-all in the world

On Saturday I finished reading The Year of Living Biblically by AJ Jacobs. It was the third AJ Jacobs book I've read and rarely do I like every book an author has written, but this is the case for Mr. Jacobs. (Ok so I didn't read The Guinea Pig Diaries which is a collection of his articles but I assume I will enjoy it). In Living Biblically AJ attempts to live the words of the Bible as literally as possible from the basics like keeping the 10 commandments to the more obscure like not touching a woman during a certain time of the month. I laughed out loud several times while reading this and love AJ's self-deprecating humor. One of my favorite parts about his books are how his experiments affect his personal relationships with his wife and family. Living Biblically displayed these relationships more than the other two books, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Another aspect I liked was the diversity of religions AJ chose to explore. He did everything from visiting Israel and dancing with the Jews to attending an evangelical church in Virginia and even visited my hometown of Lancaster, Pennsylvania to commune with the Amish. 

In The Know-It-All, AJ attempts to become the smartest man in the world by reading the entire Encyclopedia Britannica from A-Z. This book is comprised of each section of the Britannica and AJ's favorite or what he found most interesting about each section. Lots of random facts which would otherwise be a bore to learn about, but many made me laugh. He also gets to participate on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire during his experiment.

Finally, Drop Dead Healthy was the first AJ Jacobs book I've read. He attempts to be the healthiest man in the world by incorporating a variety of different health techniques, diets and exercises into his everyday life. He monitors his health and gives updates on his weight and BMI. I liked this because I actually learned a few tips on being healthier like counting the number of times you chew something to eat slower. I eat very fast which results in eating a lot.

I highly recommend any of these books, regardless of what type of genre is your favorite. They are interesting, informative and entertaining and make great read-by-the-pool reads because it's that time of year ;)

You can always see what I'm reading and what I thought about it on www.goodreads.com. Get an account and follow me. It's cooler than Facebook.

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for this post- I have added "The Year of Living Biblically" to my book list!

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