"Impressive and often tremendously amusing… The author's determination despite constant complications from his modern secular life (wife, job, family, NYC) underscores both the absurdity of his plight and its profundity. While debunking biblical literalism-with dinner party-ready scriptural quotes-Jacobs simultaneously finds his spirituality renewed…. A biblical travelogue-and far funnier than your standard King James."

-Kirkus Reviews

"A.J. Jacobs is so funny he can make watching his beard grow hilarious. The Year of Living Biblically is the most unexpectedly delightful - and consistently charming - book I've read in a long time. It will have you laughing out loud, nodding in disbelief, and rethinking what you believe about the Bible. It will also have you tallying your sins: I coveted his humor and envied his facial hair. And that's no lie."

-Bruce Feiler,
author of Waking the Bible
and Where God was Born

"A.J. Jacobs has written a -- how else to put it? -- Good Book. Let me take my review from the original, Psalm 2, verse 4: "He that sittith in the heavens shall laugh." And let me suggest that readers, whether they know their bible or not, get to know A.J. Jacobs. But not in a biblical sense, please."

-PJ O'Rourke

"The Year of Living Biblically is an extremely compelling book, appropriately irreverent and highly entertaining. More significantly, it is a tale of an intense and intelligent spiritual search that will speak powerfully and instructively to a generation of seekers."

-Rabbi David Ellenson,
President Hebrew Union College

"In the 21st Century few, if any, Christians truly attempt to follow the Bible in its literal entirety, even us evangelicals. In this year-long experiment A.J. Jacobs attempts just that, with disarmingly sincere, refreshingly humorous and unexpectedly insightful results. I commend this inspired narrative to anyone actively exploring the continued relevance of biblical living, religion's need for critical self-reflection and the timelessness of authentic faith."

-Reverend Jim Wallis,
author of God's Politics
and President of Sojourners/Call to Renewal

A. J. Jacobs has written about the Bible in a manner that is brilliantly funny but unerringly respectful, learned but goofy, deeply personal yet highly relevant. I am covetous and wish him smited."

-Mary Roach,
bestselling author of Spook and Stiff

"Both laugh out loud funny and enlightening…an entirely absorbing read."

-People magazine (Four stars out of four)

"Delightful, self-deprecating…fascinating."

-Seattle Times

"Funny and educational for those who've been playing hooky from church. Even better you get to sleep in on the Sabbath."

-Entertainment Weekly

"At the risk of overreaching, I'm just going to say it: It's better than the Bible. Or not better, necessarily. But it is funnier, moves faster, and doesn't bog you down with any of those genealogies."

-Matt Labash, Slate Magazine

"Somewhere between growing his beard to Moses lengths, stoning an adulterer with a pebble and limiting his wardrobe to white garments, A.J. Jacobs had a spiritual awakening."

-Miami Herald

"Where his last book was a quest for smarts, this one is a quest for his spiritual roots. And it's very funny."

-St. Louis Dispatch

"An inspired idea…Jacobs is alarmingly adept at keeping the joke alive for 365 days…For many of us…walking with Jacobs is the closest we’ll come to knowing what it feels like to be born again."

-Hannah Rosin, The New York Times Book Review

"A surpisingly moving memoir…This is a highly effective and affecting book."

-The Orlando Sentinel

"An achingly funny memoir. Its self-awareness rescues Jacobs' project from being merely quixotic or entertaining and elevates it to something beautiful."

-Christianity Today, Books & Culture

"[Jacobs] is a joy to ride along with on this biblical journey. It is a book that could spark deep conversations and cause audible laughter."

-Jewish Book World

"Often very funny [but] it's ultimately a thoughtful and endearing study of the limits of biblical literalism and the possibilities of moral and spiritual self-improvement."

-Houston Chronicle

"Often laugh-out-loud funny, and nearly always painfully honest. A"

-The Onion A.V. Club

"If a writer lives who combines humor and life lessons any better than Jacobs, that writer is unknown to me."

-St. Petersburg Times

"Jacobs has that rare ability to be sincere without being self-serious,
to be laugh-aloud funny without being ridiculous...a thoughtful and
thankfully humorous voice, on a subject that does not often enjoy much
of either."

-Heeb Magazine

"Engagingly written chronicle...a gracefully written book with a heart. In a world that tends to medicalize every peccadillo, Jacobs' straightforward and systematic efforts at biblically guided, moral self-purification are often surprisingly edifying."

-Gordon Marino, The Los Angeles Times

"Setting out to explore the consequences of strict adherence to Biblical laws, A.J. Jacobs encounters a series of experiences that are as hilarious as they are thought-provoking.  Along the way he teaches us both the fallacies of modern day religious fundamentalism and the joys of discovering the transcendent and timeless truths of faith."

-Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., Director, Human Genome Project, Author of The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief

"As a man incapable of developing any facial hair aside from a really amazingly cruddy moustache, I would have bought this book for the astonishing big beard chronicle alone. That THE YEAR OF LIVING BIBLICALLY grows, beard-like, into a long, hilarious, tangled, and ultimately moving story of spiritual growth is all the more astonishing. But why should I continue to be surprised at what springs from AJ's head? He is a brilliantly hilarious writer who truly lives up to that oft-misused adverb/adjective combination, and then some. Plus: HE IS GOING TO HEAVEN. So how can you not afford to tithe your salary to his cause and but this book?"

-John Hodgman Daily Show correspondent and author of AREAS OF MY EXPERTISE

"Jacobs is a good guide and you'll find the trip rewarding."

-The New York Post

"A surprisingly moving memoir…This is a highly effective and affecting book."

-Orlando Sentinel

"Jacobs' book is highly entertaining but it touches on an age-old debate that centuries ago drove Martin Luther's reformation of the Christian church and gave birth to Protestantism. The issue that continues to divide Bible believers is the purpose of the Biblical rules, commonly referred to as the Law or ''good works,'' in one's spiritual justification or acceptance by God."

-Salt Lake Tribune

"A book that is at one and the same time delightfully readable and profoundly memorable is a wonder! The Year of Living Biblically is exactly that. A. J. Jacobs has perceived the distinction between the wisdom of the Bible and its absurdities.  It is shame that so many of both our clergy and our politicians seem incapable of making that distinction."

-John Shelby Spong, Author of JESUS FOR THE NON-RELIGIOUS and former Episcopal bishop

"Watching a man, particularly a man as funny and self-effacing as Jacobs, attempt to live under those principles can be highly entertaining... a darned entertaining read with some surprising revelations."

-The Lima News (Ohio)

"The book is extremely humorous - the introduction alone leaves the reader grinning. It's also serious as it chronicles Jacobs' revelatory year."

-Jeff Korelik, Lincoln Journal Star

"Seeing that most people violate at least three of the 10 commandments on their way to work - even people who work from home - says a lot about the scale of AJ's feat. The fact that you need to buy six copies of this book to unlock the code to save all humanity....well, that's just pure genius."

-Ben Karlin, co-creator of The Colbert Report, and co-author of America: The Book

"The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible, offers an accessible way to think about religion in modern life. Yes, studying religion can be fun."

-American Way

"Jacobs humor, wit and dedication will leave you with an appreciation for even the most bizarre religious rituals"

-Daily Candy

"The Year of Living Biblically is worth reading. It's a good book about the Good Book."

-The Oregonian

"Jacobs recounts his year with intimacy, honesty and humor. He examines some truly odd aspects of religious life (visiting a new creationist museum, an Amish baseball game and a former cult leader ex-uncle who became haredi and lives in Jerusalem) but strives, always, to focus on the essence of Biblical literalism."

-Jerusalem Post

"Extremely funny"

-Providence Journal