A.J. Jacobs's Blog

If you read THE YEAR OF LIVING BIBLICALLY, you might remember my biblical slave -- Kevin Roose. In the intervening couple of years, Kevin has been released from bondage and has written a remarkable book that comes out this week.

To back up: During my year, I was looking for a way to address slavery, because parts of the Bible seem to condone the practice. The closest thing to a legal slave in the Tri-State area? An intern. It fulfills the 'unpaid labor' part of the definition, at least. So I hir

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If you read my first book, THE KNOW-IT-ALL, you might remember my nemesis Eric. He's my Harvard-educated brother-in-law who never fails to mock my relative lack of knowledge. (If you recall, I had one glorious moment of retribution when he was my lifeline on "Who Wants to be a Millionaire," and he missed the question - despite the fact that it was about biology and he happened to have been a bio major at Harvard. So I may have humiliated myself on national TV, but at least I brought him down ...

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If you read my first book, THE KNOW-IT-ALL, you might remember my nemesis Eric. He's my Harvard-educated brother-in-law who never fails to mock my relative lack of knowledge. (If you recall, I had one glorious moment of retribution when he was my lifeline on "Who Wants to be a Millionaire," and he missed the question - despite the fact that it was about biology and he happened to have been a bio major at Harvard. So I may have humiliated myself on national TV, but at least I brought him down wit

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"The Year of Living Biblically" just came out in paperback this week (it's got lots of exciting bonus material! Including book club guide! And a recipe! Makes a great gift!)
As I was saying, my book came out in paperback this week, and I was out on a mini-book tour.

I spent a lot of time at airport Starbucks. I particularly recommend the Louisville outlet -- very friendly staff. I also rented "Don't Mess With the Zohan" on the hotel Pay Per View (which was, to paraphrase A.O. Scott, the best mo...

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"The Year of Living Biblically" just came out in paperback this week (it's got lots of exciting bonus material! Including book club guide! And a recipe! Makes a great gift!)
As I was saying, my book came out in paperback this week, and I was out on a mini-book tour.

I spent a lot of time at airport Starbucks. I particularly recommend the Louisville outlet -- very friendly staff. I also rented "Don't Mess With the Zohan" on the hotel Pay Per View (which was, to paraphrase A.O. Scott, the best movie

View full post on A.J. Jacobs's website »

Hello everyone! I got a remarkable letter last week from a soldier in Iraq named Shaun Feingold. I found his words so inpiring, I asked him if I could post them, and he agreed. So here they are:

At the start of the letter, Shaun says he had read some articles about my books that described me as a humorist. He continues:

"I thought to myself, 'What exactly is a humorist' and as far as I can tell, it's someone who finds the little everyday things in life that make you smile.

I have now been in I...

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Hello everyone! I got a remarkable letter last week from a soldier in Iraq named Shaun Feingold. I found his words so inpiring, I asked him if I could post them, and he agreed. So here they are:

At the start of the letter, Shaun says he had read some articles about my books that described me as a humorist. He continues:

"I thought to myself, 'What exactly is a humorist' and as far as I can tell, it's someone who finds the little everyday things in life that make you smile.

I have now been in Iraq

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When I was very young -- nine or ten -- I asked my parents to explain communism. My mom summarized it this way: In the Soviet Union, you don't have any choices. You can only get vanilla ice cream.

I was horrified. Understandably so. Only vanilla? No Baskin-Robbins' 31-derful flavors?

For most of my life, I've loved freedom of choice. Fetishized it, even. It's the American way. It's why I went to a college that had no requirements and where you can go through all four years writing papers abou...

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When I was very young -- nine or ten -- I asked my parents to explain communism. My mom summarized it this way: In the Soviet Union, you don't have any choices. You can only get vanilla ice cream.

I was horrified. Understandably so. Only vanilla? No Baskin-Robbins' 31-derful flavors?

For most of my life, I've loved freedom of choice. Fetishized it, even. It's the American way. It's why I went to a college that had no requirements and where you can go through all four years writing papers about t

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I spent last year trying to live according to the rules and customs of the Bible. And a few months in, I decided that if I was really going to commit, maybe I should take a shot at polygamy.

It's a huge theme in the Old Testament. Polygamy was, if not the norm, completely accepted in early biblical times. Jacob had two wives (and two concubines). King David had eight. Solomon holds the record with an impressive seven hundred spouses.

Things, of course, have gone sour for polygamy since then. This

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