Tuesday, June 24, 2008

The Year of Living Biblically

In the new book club book, The Year of Living Biblically, the author tries to follow the Bible as literally as possible. This has already led to some amusing and embarrassing scenes for the author. Aside from putting tassels on his clothes and having unshaven facial hair, the author has to abide by some pretty tough rituals, one of which has lead to my favorite moment so far: Jacobs is not allowed to touch his wife or sit anywhere she has sat during the time of the month when she menstruates because in the old testament it was considered "unclean." Highly affronted, Jacobs' wife retaliates by sitting on every surface in the house; every chair, bed and countertop. Jacobs solves this problem by purchasing this "handy seat". He then proceeds to write about why this handy seat is a wonderful commode for his situation: 1. It "looks like a staff." and 2. Most likely all public seating is "unclean" and so he can whip it out on the subway or a restaurant!

Point being: this is a funny book because living the old testament in modern times would be very difficult, yet comedic. You should read it.

1 comment:

D.I. Zzo said...

That story is funny every time I hear it. I'm so glad to be learning all this Biblical stuff through you know.

P.S. - My favorite part of the post is this: "so he can whip it out on the subway or a restaurant!"

I'll grow out of it someday.