Press

“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

“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

“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

“If a writer lives who combines humor and life lessons any better than Jacobs, that writer is unknown to me.” –St. Petersburg Times

“Extremely funny.” –Providence Journal

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“Inspired and inspiring…” –Vanity Fair

“The Know-It-All is a clever, wise book.” –Vancouver Sun

“Charming . . . endearing . . . the book’s facts will provide enough anecdotes to perk up conversations and weather the season’s social events. More substantially, The Know-It-All belongs to the category of literary expeditions whose chief reward is their nudging toward a fantastic, heretofore forbidding, work.” –The Washington Post

“Frequently funny and sometimes downright hilarious, but this is also an unexpectedly moving book.” –The Daily Mail

“I fell in love with this book on page one and I have laughed out loud on every page since. With his hilarious Britannica-fed insights on life, A.J. Jacobs uncovers the profound by way of the trivial. The Know-It-All is endlessly entertaining. Genius, pure.” –Mary Roach, New York Times bestselling author of Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

“This book, which guarantees almost a guffaw on every page. is is so intriguing I abandoned Bill Clinton's "My Life" on Page 773, just as Ms. Lewinsky strolled into the book.” –The News & Observer (Raleigh, North Carolina)

“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

“His tongue-in-cheek writing style and breezy voice make the book an easy and enjoyable read.” –Jewish Book World

“Jacobs…could be the funniest nonfiction writer this side of Bill Bryson…The experiments themselves are fascinating and lead to genuinely surprising conclusions…and Jacobs’ storytelling is lighthearted and frequently laugh-out-loud funny…There aren’t a lot of nonfiction books you want to read over and over, but this is certainly one of them.” –Booklist, starred review

“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

“Who wouldn’t want to be fitter, happier, more productive? In this riotous, madcap book, A.J. Jacobs sets himself an ambitious goal: to become the person we all wish we could be. It’s vintage A.J. Do your future self a favor and buy this book.” –Joshua Foer, author of Moonwalking with Einstein

“His tongue-in-cheek writing style and breezy voice make the book an easy and enjoyable read.” –Jewish Book World

“I couldn’t wait to get my hands on this book, and once again, the brilliant A.J. Jacobs had me laughing out loud—and also deciding to change the way I live. Drop Dead Healthy is a rare mixture of the hilarious, the absurd, and the scientifically sound. Who knew it could be so entertaining to read about broccoli puree and shoeless jogging?” –Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project

“Jacobs…could be the funniest nonfiction writer this side of Bill Bryson…The experiments themselves are fascinating and lead to genuinely surprising conclusions…and Jacobs’ storytelling is lighthearted and frequently laugh-out-loud funny…There aren’t a lot of nonfiction books you want to read over and over, but this is certainly one of them.” –Booklist, starred review

“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