Good Book: The Bizarre, Hilarious, Disturbing, Marvelous, and Inspiring Things I Learned When I Read Every Single Word of the Bible
At a time when wars are fought over scriptural interpretation, when the influence of religion on American politics has never been greater, when many Americans still believe in the Bible’s literal truth, it has never been more important to get to know the Bible. Good Book is what happens when a regular guy—an average Job—actually reads the book on which his religion, his culture, and his world are based. Along the way, he grapples with the most profound theological questions: How many...
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At a time when wars are fought over scriptural interpretation, when the influence of religion on American politics has never been greater, when many Americans still believe in the Bible’s literal truth, it has never been more important to get to know the Bible. Good Book is what happens when a regular guy—an average Job—actually reads the book on which his religion, his culture, and his world are based. Along the way, he grapples with the most profound theological questions: How many commandments do we actually need? Does God prefer obedience or good deeds? And the most unexpected ones: Why are so many women in the Bible prostitutes? Why does God love bald men so much? Is Samson really that stupid? The New York Times - Rich Cohen It's CliffsNotes for Scripture—screenplay by Plotz, story by God—which is by turns entertaining, serious, shallow, profound, literal-minded, cute, ingratiating, hilarious.
Good Book\ Chapter One\ You'd think God would know exactly what He's doing at the Creation. But He doesn't. He's a tinkerer. He tries something out: What happens if I move all the water around so there's room for dry land? He checks it out. Yes, "this was good." Then He moves on to His next experiment: How about plants? I'll try plants.\ Creation is haphazard, like any do-it-yourself building project. For example, God tackles the major geological and astronomical features during the first two days...light, sky, water, earth. But day three is a curious interruption...the creation of plants...that is followed by a return to massive universe-shaping efforts on day four with the formation of the sun, moon, and stars. The plant venture is a tangent, like installing the refrigerator before you've put a roof on the house.\ Does the Lord love insects best? They're so nice He makes them twice. On day five, He makes "the living creatures of every kind that creep." A day later, He makes "all kinds of creeping things of the earth." "Creeping" is all over Creation, in fact. When God tells His newly made man and woman that they rule over the Earth's creatures, He specifies that their subjects include "every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." What a phrase, perfect for bugs and babies.\ Good Book. Copyright © by David Plotz. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.
Introduction: In the Beginning 11 The Book of Genesis: God's First Try 72 The Book of Exodus: Let My Complaining, Whining, No-Goodnik People Go! 353 The Book of Leviticus: Lovers and Lepers 554 The Book of Numbers: The Source of All Jewish Comedy 695 The Book of Deuteronomy: The Bible's Fifth Beatle 856 The Book of Joshua: Why So Many Bible Hookers? 997 The Book of Judges: The Meathead and the Left-Handed Assassin 1098 The Book of 1 Samuel: The Bible's Bill Clinton 1239 The Book of 2 Samuel: God's Favorite King 13910 The Book of 1 Kings: Kings of Pain 15111 The Book of 2 Kings: The End of Israel 16712 Digging the Bible 17713 The Book of Isaiah: The Jesus Preview 18914 The Book of Jeremiah: The Prophet and the Lustful She-Camel 20115 The Book of Ezekiel: God's Whole-Grain Hippie Prophet 20916 The Minor Prophets: All Those Books You've Never Heard Of, Plus Jonah and the Whale 21917 The Book of Psalms: 150 Short Poems about God 22918 The Book of Proverbs: Chicken Soup for the Hebrew Soul 24119 The Book of Job: God's Bad Bet 24720 The Song of Songs: Hot and Holy 25921 The Book of Ruth: My Favorite Bible Story 26522 The Books of Lamentations and Ecclesiastes: Bible Books for Rock Stars 26923 The Book of Esther: The First Miss Universe Pageant 27524 The Book of Daniel: Nice Pussycat! 28325 The Books of Ezra and Nehemiah: Coming Home 28926 The Books of 1 and 2 Chronicles: Return of the Kings 29527 Should You Read the Bible? 299Appendix Useful (and Not So Useful) Bible Lists 307Acknowledgements 321
\ From Barnes & Noble"Like many lax but well-educated Jews (and Christians), I have long assumed I knew what was in the Bible-more in less." When David Plotz realized that he was wrong, he embarked on a simple project: He would read every word in the Old Testament, not as a scholar, but "unmediated by teachers, rabbis, or parents." What he learned in this momentous amateur adventure is certain to surprise you, whether you think of yourself as a committed Christian or Jew, an agnostic, or an atheist. An engaging read that lives up to every single one of its subtitle claims.\ \ \ \ \ A. J. Jacobs"Like the Bible itself, Good Book contains multitudes—it is by turns thought-provoking, funny, enlightening and moving. In short, David Plotz’s book easily lives up to its name. Trust me, Thou shalt enjoy."\ \ \ Andy Borowitz"Thanks to David Plotz’s amazing book, I will never have to read The Bible. When can he do this for Madame Bovary?"\ \ \ \ \ Franklin Foer"Plotz is a genius writer. He can mine Genesis for new insights—and play the book of Job for laughs. He’s the perfect companion for a romp through the Bible: charmingly confessional, a deeply penetrating reader, and at complete ease relating ancient (often obscure) narratives to our modern condition."\ \ \ \ \ Time Out New York"Irreverent. . . . Plotz’s hilarious exegeses will have you laughing out loud. Who knew the Bible was such a riot?"\ \ \ \ \ The Jerusalem Post"Highly entertaining."\ \ \ \ \ The Minneapolis Star Tribune"A bloody good book. . . . Very funny. . . . Priceless for those of all traditions who see value in posing unanswerable questions to each other, and to God himself."\ \ \ \ \ Rich CohenIt's CliffsNotes for Scripture—screenplay by Plotz, story by God—which is by turns entertaining, serious, shallow, profound, literal-minded, cute, ingratiating, hilarious.\ —The New York Times\ \
