That's a lot of rules!

There are perks to every job. Granted some are better than others, but still there are perks. One of the perks of my job is that I am fairly certain that I will NEVER have to buy another book or magazine. On average per flight, there are probably at least 3 different magazines and generally one book that is left on the plane. So, as you can imagine, doing an average of 14 flights on a 4 day trip, the reading material stacks up. 85% has no interest to me. I have never been one for Soap Opera Digest for example.

This last trip I was on though, one of the flight attendants brought up the latest find of a book called "The Year of Living Biblically". I didn't pay much attention to it. I figured it was a devotional and is generally not what I choose to read on a four hour flight. I gave it a second look though, and my mind changed quickly. First of all, the book is a New York Times bestseller, and is classified as humor. As I read the back, it sounds actually good. It happens to be about this writer from NYC and his quest to follow the Bible AS LITERALLY AS POSSIBLE for a whole year. His plan is to spend 8 months on the Old Testament and 4 months on the New Testament.

As he gets started he reads the Old Testament and makes a list 47 pages long of every rule / commandment / etc, he can find, no matter how obscure. And then he sets out to follow every single one. And the following 300 pages are both laugh out loud funny (reading how he attempts to follow the rule to stone all adulterers, and then goes to Central Park, walks up to random people, asks if they are indeed an adulterer, and if so drops a pebble on his or her shoe --- that's how he managed to stone someone in NYC in the 21st century) and oddly spiritual.

The book is written by A.J. Jacobs. A self-proclaimed agnostic for 20+ years. The book lives everyday of his life, how is wife and kids take to the changes he goes through and the hilarity of him trying to follow rules from centuries ago in the middle of New York City. I don't think I have recommended a book, well, maybe ever, but for anyone who is in for an entertaining read, with an ironically deeper message, pick up a copy.




Oh, and by the way, Jacob's previous book is titled "The Know-It All". Apparently it is about his life over several months has he read the entire encyclopedia Britannica from A - Z, including using the mating rituals of penguins as pick-up lines in the bar. Hopefully someone will be nice enough to leave that book an a future flight too!