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  • I'm coming North!

    Posted by A. J. Jacobs, 3 years ago

    Hello all,
    My new book THE GUINEA PIG DIARIES: MY LIFE AS AN EXPERIMENT is out today. And my first stop on my North American tour is none other than Canada. No offense to Mexico. But I think I have more readers in Canada.
    I'll be on CBC's THE HOUR on Thursday, September 10.
    And at 7 pm on the 10th, I'll be speaking at Indigo (yes, the physical version of the website you are on right now!). The one on Manulife Center in Toronto. I can't wait. Hope you can make it.

    By the way, here's a video of my new book, fyi
    www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKSXdDvBaio

  • Canada

    Posted by A. J. Jacobs, 4 years ago

    When I was in Canada, I spoke to a nice journalist. Her name was Kate. She was polite as most Canadians are.

    Macleans'
    The author talks about his year of taking the Bible literally, and what happened when he stoned an adulterer
    KATE FILLION | October 8, 2007 |

    Why, aside from the fact that you could write a book about it -- The Year of Living Biblically -- did you try to follow the Bible as literally as possible?
    I grew up in an incredibly secular home, with no religion at all. I'm Jewish, but in the same way the Olive Garden is Italian -- not very Jewish at all. I'd always assumed religion would fade away and we'd all live in this neo-Enlightenment world, ruled completely by science and reason. Of course I was spectacularly mistaken, and I wanted to understand religion, and why it's still so influential and powerful.
    Did you believe in God when you started?
    No. I was an agnostic.
    Following the Bible literally isn't a simple matter. Aren't there many different interpretations of individual passages?
    You can find whatever interpretation you want if you look far enough. I even found a website that says it's okay to smoke dope. But my goal was to get to the original intent of the Bible, to go right to the source.
    Which was more difficult: following Biblical rules about food, or physical appearance?
    I'd have to say physical appearance, though really the Bible changed everything in my life: the way I dressed, the way I ate, the way I talked, the way I touched my wife. By the end I had a huge beard, it was really quite alarming in terms of volume, because the Bible says not to trim the edges of your beard. I got at least three ZZ Top jokes a week. The Bible also says, "Let oil not be lacking on your head," so I put a dab of olive oil on my hair every morning. Biblically speaking, your clothing should not have mixed fibres, so I hired this fascinating man, an Orthodox Jew, to come inspect my wardrobe with a microscope and a bunch of tools to be sure none of my clothes mixed wool and linen. It turned out that the suit I'd worn to my wedding did have mixed fibres, so I couldn't wear it for a year, which is a bigger deal than you might think because it was also my only suit. The other thing is that the Bible says to attach tassels to the four corners of your clothing; the purpose is to remind you of the Commandments, it's basically the Biblical version of a string around the finger. So I sewed or sometimes safety-pinned tassels to the corners of my shirt. And there's a line in the Bible that says, "Let your garments always be white." I tried to wear white all the time: white pants, a white shirt, and by the end, a white robe, because I felt I really had to commit. That was one of my favourite parts of the experience, actually, because wearing white just makes you feel lighter and more pure. You can't be in a bad mood if you're walking around

    more here:
    www.macleans.ca/culture/lifestyle/article.jsp?content=20071008_110093_110093

    • 2 people found this helpful

    Year of Living in NYC

    Posted by A. J. Jacobs, 4 years ago

    Me! In a movie!

    • Year of Living NYC

  • Meet A.J !

    Posted by A. J. Jacobs, 5 years ago

    A.J. Jacobs will be in Toronto, ON for the International Festival of Authors on October 20th. For more details check out
    www.readings.org/?q=ifoa/reading_a_j_jacobs_bruce_meyer

  • How To Be Good

    Posted by A. J. Jacobs, 5 years ago

    HOW TO BE GOOD

    During my year, I never achieved the moral heights of Ghandi or Angelina Jolie. But I was certainly more angelic than my normal, non-Biblical self. Here, some techniques I picked up:

    HOW NOT TO GOSSIP
    One of my spiritual advisers gave me a good image here: Think of negative speech as verbal pollution. Visualize insults and gossip as a dark cloud, maybe one with some sulfur dioxide. Once you've belched it out, you can't take it back. Another good anti-gossiping resource: The Chofetz Chaim Heritage Foundation, a Jewish organization that is on a mission to stamp out negative speech (Lashon hara in Hebrew. www.chofetzchaimusa.org They even have a hotline you can call when you're on the precipice of saying something negative: 718-951-3696. (I once called it when I had the irrepressible urge to say nasty things about Hollywood director Michael Bay, about whom I was writing about in an article. They talked me down).

    And finally, a pastor in Kansas City has started this movement: A Complaint Free World. [ccunitykc.org] The idea is that you wear a purple bracelet to remind you to stop whining for 21 straight days.

  • Year of Living Biblically

    Posted by A. J. Jacobs, 5 years ago

    The Year of Living Biblically is about my quest to live the ultimate biblical life. To follow every single rule in the Bible – as literally as possible. I obey the famous ones:
    The Ten Commandments
    Love thy neighbor
    Be fruitful and multiply
    But also, the hundreds of oft-ignored ones.
    Do not wear clothes of mixed fibers.
    Do not shave your beard
    Stone adulterers
    Why? Well, I grew up in a very secular home (I’m officially Jewish but I’m Jewish in the same way the Olive Garden is an Italian restaurant). I’d always assumed religion would just wither away and we’d live in a neo-Enlightenment world. I was, of course, spectacularly wrong. So was I missing something essential to being a human? Or was half the world deluded?

    I decided to dive in headfirst. To try to experience the Bible myself and find out what’s good in it, and what’s maybe not so relevant to the 21st century.

    The resulting year was fascinating, entertaining and informative. It was equal parts irreverent and reverent. It was filled with surprising insights almost every day. (I know it’s not biblical to boast, so apologies for that).

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