I read these books a few months ago but realized had not put them in here. Highly recommended.
I found out about these books from a podcast i heard where AJ Jacobs was interviewed about his second book – year of living biblically. it sounded interesting and so i ordered it on amazon.
his first book consists of his describing his efforts to read the encyclopaedia brittanica in its entirety to make himself the smartest man on the earth. Interspersed with anecdotes from his life – home and work most of which he to connect to some of the words/phrases he is reading, it is not meant to tell you all about the book but just some interesting parts with observations.
following the success (?) of that effort, he decided to read and live by the Bible for an year. He follows most of the rules laid out in the Book and writes of the reactions, responses, work-arounds and so on of the effort.
While i was not to follow his footsteps, i would not mind reading about more of them.