Writer A.J. Jacobs has a mission: to obey the Bible literally for a full year.
The senior editor at Esquire magazine will share the results of that endeavor in The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Obey the Bible As Literally As Possible, which Simon & Schuster plans to publish in fall 2006.
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Hollywood trade publication Variety also recently reported that Paramount Pictures has acquired the film rights to the book.
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In Living Biblically, Jacobs will trace his attempt to steep himself “in the rules of the Old and New Testament,” according to Variety.
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Humor associated with literal interpretations of the Bible has dotted the netscape for several years. An e-mail poking fun at media personality and psychiatrist Dr. Laura Schlesinger achieved particularly wide circulation after she publicly cited a passage in Leviticus calling homosexuality an abomination.
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The e-mail contemplated, tongue-in-cheek, the best ways to follow certain Levitical “rules” like selling children into slavery, working on the Sabbath and cutting one’s hair.
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The book marks Jacobs’ second contract with Simon & Schuster, the first being The Know-It-All: One Man’s Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World. Published last year,
Know-It-All chronicled Jacobs’ attempt to read all 32 volumes of Encyclopedia Brittanica.
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That critically adored book is also being turned into a film, Variety reported, with Jacobs himself writing the adaptation.
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Jacobs also wrote America Off-Line and The Two Kings: Jesus and Elvis.
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Cliff Vaughn is culture editor for EthicsDaily.com.