Wednesday, October 17, 2007

A. J. Jacobs

A. J. Jacobs is the author of The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible.

Jana Riess of Religion BookLine interviewed Jacobs for Publishers Weekly. One exchange from their Q & A:

RBL: How — or rather, why in the world — did you come up with the idea for this book?

Jacobs: I grew up in an incredibly secular home. I'm Jewish in the same way that the Olive Garden is Italian. I had no religion whatsoever. But I'd become increasingly interested in the role of religion in our world, so I decided to dive in head first, and try to actually live the Bible as literally as possible. I wanted to follow what the Bible says and get into the minds of the ancients who wrote it. I wanted to figure out what was relevant and good for me, and what was maybe not so relevant.
Read the entire Q & A.

--Marshal Zeringue