Press

“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

“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

“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

“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)

“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

“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

“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

“A great book. More than just a cute treatment of trivia. A letter perfect story about reading A-Z.” –Rocky Mountain News

“Mighty intelligent. . . . It would be so easy to write about the humorous passages and give short shrift to the underlying serious inquiry into the nature of knowledge. The Know-It-All is the most serious funny book I can recall reading during my 56 years. I cannot imagine any avid reader skipping a word.” –The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

“The Know-It-All is a terrific book. It’s a lot shorter than the encyclopedia, and funnier, and you’ll remember more of it. Plus, if it falls off the shelf onto your head, you’ll live.” –P.J. O'Rourke, New York Times bestselling author of Peace Kills

“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

“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

“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

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

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

“We can become healthier by learning from A.J.’s discomfort in this very funny book. He moves us from theory to practice by dragging his body through all the longevity practices.” –Dr. Mehmet Oz, host, “The Dr. Oz Show”

“‘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

“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