AJ Jacobs is an editor at large at Esquire magazine. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller THE YEAR OF LIVING BIBLICALLY. His previous book, also a Times bestseller was called THE KNOW-IT-ALL and was about reading the encyclopedia from A to Z. He has appeared on Oprah, the Today show and is a contributor to NPR. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.








General Session 3 (interview) 
Wednesday, February 11, 2009, 9:30-11:30am, Grand Exhibit Hall

The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the
Bible as Literally as Possible
Wednesday, February 11, 2009, 1:30PM-3:00pm, Pacific Salon 3
We will discuss what it means to live biblically in our modern world. For twelve months, I attempted to follow every single rule in the Old Testament – from the famous ones (the Ten Commandments, Love Thy Neighbor) to the often ignored ones (don’t shave your beard, don’t wear clothes made of mixed fibers, stone adulterers). The resulting journey was reverent and irreverent, profound and funny, personal and universal. I wrote about it in my bestselling book THE YEAR OF LIVING BIBLICALLY. The project started three years ago. Raised an agnostic Jew, I began to wonder if I was missing anything by not having religion in my life. So I decided to dive in headfirst and try to live the Bible. To follow everything it said as literally as possible. I was surprised by how relevant much of the Bible’s ancient wisdom was to my 21st-century life.