Press

“A surprisingly moving memoir…This is a highly effective and affecting book.” –The Orlando Sentinel

“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

“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

“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

“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).” –PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY

“[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

“Jacobs humor, wit and dedication will leave you with an appreciation for even the most bizarre religious rituals” –Daily Candy

“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

“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

“The Year of Living Biblically is worth reading. It's a good book about the Good Book.” –The Oregonian

“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

“Often laugh-out-loud funny, and nearly always painfully honest. A” –The Onion A.V. Club

“Eccentric, charming… amusing…” –The Christian Science Monitor

“Enormous fun… a comic triumph.” –Kirkus Reviews (starred)

“A.J. Jacobs turns the act of reading the entire Britannica into a hilarious memoir. . . . It’s the stunt of the book itself that allows the funny, touching memoir to be so stuffed with nutritious bits of trivia that you feel smart for reading it.” –Time

“Jacobs’ ability to juxtapose his quirky, sardonic wit with oddball trivia makes this one of the season’s most unusual books.” –Publishers Weekly

“Tender . . . Entertaining . . . This book really does seek a working definition of what it means to be smart.” –Janet Maslin, The New York Times

“Sidesplitting.” –Time Out New York

“The Know-It-All is a hilarious book and quite an impressive achievement. I’ve always said, why doesn’t someone put out a less complete version of the encyclopedia? Well done, A.J.” –Jon Stewart, Host of The Daily Show and New York Times bestselling author of America (The Book)

“Hilarious…” –Premiere

“The Know-It-All has to be one of the most entertaining and informative book reports in existence. It is charming, humorous, instructive, fascinating, even kind of inspirational. But Jacobs’ book is more than that. He puts it all into the context of his life, and a text that could have been utterly dry winds up charming us with Jacobs’ honesty and vulnerability. Jacobs is courageous enough to risk looking stupid by sharing his quirks and insecurities . . . and he wins the gambit. He comes across as nothing short of endearing.” –The Philadelphia Inquirer

“Hilarious…” –New York Post

“Whatever genius it took to turn the weighty task of reading the entire encyclopedia into such an entertaining frolic of a book, my bet is that Jacobs had it all along.” –Entertainment Weekly

“A.J. Jacobs’ story of his quest is one of the year’s funniest books.” –Indionapolis Star

“Jacobs, a kind of latter-day George Plimpton, tests…our funny bones once again with his smart-aleck, off-the-wall and uproarious experiments in living.” –Publishers Weekly

“We love the lifestyle experiments of author A.J. Jacobs” –Entertainment Weekly

“The virtuoso of the self-as-guinea-pig genre” –Time magazine

“Jacobs' experiments are about understanding oneself, making life more interesting and showing the reader a good time. And I love them for it.” –San Francisco Chronicle

“Over the years, [Jacobs' experiments] have grown more complex and deeper in potential meaning. Not to mention funnier and funnier.” –Kansas City Star

“Jacobs’ Diaries are delightfully unpretentious.” –Washington City Paper

“Jacobs truly lives what he reports, which makes his writing so absorbing. His books are well-researched but not boring, and his insights are both enlightening and often laugh-out-loud hilarious…brilliant.” –Wisconsin State Journal

“He’s not just in it for the yuks -- though there are plenty of yuks. (He's very funny.) He has a curious, questioning mind and is always looking for larger meaning….THE GUINEA PIG DIARIES is intelligent, insightful shtick.” –Minneapolis Star Tribune

“[T]he most enlightening moments are driven by his honesty, his sense of humor, and his willingness to constantly challenge his ingrained assumptions… Hilarity, and quite a bit of learning, ensue…In the GUINEA PIG DIARIES, he once again achieves a rare literary balance––an intellectual study of human behavior that will make readers laugh out loud or, in the more daring cases, inspire them to try one of these experiments for themselves.” –Providence Journal

“Consider ‘Guinea Pig’ a greatest hits volume, of sorts. Some fan favorites, but also some new material.” –Buffalo News

“THE GUINEA PIG DIARIES is as funny and as instructive as memoir can get.” –Knoxville News-Sentinel

“‘Immersive journalism’ is a rather popular trope these days, and GQ editor A.J. Jacobs is one of its most entertaining adherents, performing a public service with his quest for knowledge in his latest book, THE GUINEA PIG DIARIES…His experiments, alternately Herculean and banal, are emblematic of how difficult it is in this modern age to find enlightenment; ‘know thyself’ regularly brushes up against the cold, rocky bottom of daily life.” –L.A. Weekly

“Can one man go from a ‘python that ate a goat’ physique to perfect specimen? From Roman soldier workouts to Areca palm plants, from the sublime to the absurd, A.J. has tried it all. I laughed my ass off the whole way and learned a ton...including about my ass.” –Timothy Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Body

“Jacobs continues his unique brand of immersion journalism…[and] his style is crisp and often laugh-out-loud funny….[An] endearing and nimble look at how pursuing absurd extremes can illuminate the more mundane aspects of contemporary existence.” –Kirkus Reviews

“A.J. Jacobs is very, very bad for your health.  He will keep you up reading till 2 a.m., disturbing your circadian rhythms, making you sleep through breakfast and overeat at lunch. He is delicious. He’s habit-forming. He will give you infectious titters and terminal glee.  Don’t let that stop you. Indulge.” –Mary Roach, author of Bonk and Packing for Mars

“Jacobs, a kind of latter-day George Plimpton, tests…our funny bones once again with his smart-aleck, off-the-wall and uproarious experiments in living.” –Publishers Weekly

“Jacobs achieves an instant intimacy with the reader, making his family life as much a part of the narrative as his many meetings with medical theorists and health gurus. He’s a clever humorist who successfully takes his readers on a round trip from reality to absurdity, dispensing solid, valuable health information along with fascinating oddities.” –Publishers Weekly

“Jacobs returns with another delightful look at self-improvement…[his] account of his journey is engrossing and will have readers chuckling at the measures he takes in pursuit of perfect health. Readers with health and fitness interests will eagerly devour this book; it may also provide inspiration for those attempting to make healthier lifestyle choices.” –Library Journal

“The virtuoso of the self-as-guinea-pig genre” –Time magazine

“Jacobs' experiments are about understanding oneself, making life more interesting and showing the reader a good time. And I love them for it.” –San Francisco Chronicle

“Over the years, [Jacobs' experiments] have grown more complex and deeper in potential meaning. Not to mention funnier and funnier.” –Kansas City Star

“Jacobs’ Diaries are delightfully unpretentious.” –Washington City Paper

“Jacobs truly lives what he reports, which makes his writing so absorbing. His books are well-researched but not boring, and his insights are both enlightening and often laugh-out-loud hilarious…brilliant.” –Wisconsin State Journal

“He’s not just in it for the yuks -- though there are plenty of yuks. (He's very funny.) He has a curious, questioning mind and is always looking for larger meaning….THE GUINEA PIG DIARIES is intelligent, insightful shtick.” –Minneapolis Star Tribune