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Good Book: The Bizarre, Hilarious, Disturbing, Marvelous, and Inspiring Things I Learned When I Read Every Single Word of the Bible
 
 
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Good Book: The Bizarre, Hilarious, Disturbing, Marvelous, and Inspiring Things I Learned When I Read Every Single Word of the Bible (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "I've always been a proud Jew, but never a very observant one..." (more)
Key Phrases: Promised Land, Good Book, King David (more...)
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
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Price For All Three: $45.72

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Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Here are some of the bizarre, hilarious, and disturbing things in the Good Book (i.e., the Hebrew Bible). Cain gets off scot-free after killing Abel. Abraham dies at age 175, “a good ripe age, old and contented.” Jacob wrestles with and defeats an angel. God keeps seething about the golden calf. David sets himself up as a guerrilla, a freedom fighter. He’s the George Washington of Judea. Solomon really doesn’t dig Jewish girls, preferring the thrill of the pagan. King Ahaziah is seen as Israel’s precursor to Gerald Ford. Plotz compares Ezekiel to the bad parts of Portrait of a Lady, Madame Bovary, and Married with Children rolled up into a ball of rage. Deeply religious people might be offended by the book, but for the rest of us there’s a laugh on every page. --George Cohen


Review

"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." (Franklin Foer, author of How Soccer Explains the World )

"Highly entertaining." (The Jerusalem Post )

"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." (The Minneapolis Star Tribune )

"Irreverent. . . . Plotz's hilarious exegeses will have you laughing out loud. Who knew the Bible was such a riot?" (Time Out New York )

"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." (A. J. Jacobs, author of The Year of Living Biblically )

"Thanks to David Plotz's amazing book, I will never have to read The Bible. When can he do this for Madame Bovary?" (Andy Borowitz, author of The Borowitz Report )
See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

More About the Author

David Plotz
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› Visit Amazon's David Plotz Page
Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
I've always been a proud Jew, but never a very observant one. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Promised Land, Good Book, King David, Hebrew Bible, Ten Commandments, Red Sea, New Testament, Mount Sinai, Old Testament, City of David, Jordan River, Chosen People, Holy Land, Dead Sea, Judah Maccabee, Praise Him, Supreme Court, Garden of Eden, General Joab, Patient David
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Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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32 Reviews
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4.5 out of 5 stars (32 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Unorthodox but down to earth palin, May 4, 2009
By Abumesh (VA, USA) - See all my reviews
When I was in a seminary, all the books I was referring were written by scholars who have assumed authority in interpreting the scripture. And that is where I was looking if I needed any help. But all that has changed as I was reading "The Good Book," by David Poltz. I ask, Is there a right way to read the Bible? The author, who is the editor of Slate, was thumbing through the Hebrew Bible when he came across the gruesome story of Dinah (in which a young woman is raped, betrothed to the rapist and then widowed thanks to her brothers' murderous rage). Plotz, a mostly unobservant Jew, was aghast--both at the bloody, morally ambiguous plotline and at his own ignorance of its existence. He realized that his biblical education had been woefully insufficient. "Needless to say," he writes, "this isn't a story they taught me at Temple Sinai's Hebrew school in 1980." So he challenged himself to sit down and read the Hebrew Bible from beginning (Genesis) to end (Chronicles). He read a verse or two a day and blogged about it.

Amusing, sometimes laugh-out-loud funny, "The Good Book" succeeds because its tone straddles the line between irreverent and awestruck. Plotz as a lay reader is wandering in a strange land full of eccentric people and incomprehensible rules. From Samson and Delilah, he takes away these lessons: "1. Women are deceptive and heartless." And
"2. Men are too stupid and sex-crazed to realize this."
The story of Abraham and Isaac brings him--as it does everybody with a beating heart--to his knees: "As a father, I find this nearly impossible to read. Abraham does not try to distance himself from Isaac, to separate himself from the child he must kill. Isaac remains 'my son,' 'my son'."

Questions of authority will inevitably come up, especially among Jewish and Christian conservatives. Who is this Plotz?, readers may wonder. What right has he to interpret the Bible for the rest of us? Plotz, to his credit, does not claim any credentials; he flat-out confesses his ignorance. Still, my teachers at the seminary might caution against Plotz's offhand approach: a young man, a computer, a Bible and a big cup of coffee with no regard for traditional interpretation method with no theological background. But I am reminded here of the Protestant Reformation, which took "right" interpretations out of the hands of church authorities and gave the Bible to the people--in the languages they spoke at home. It was a revolution.

The Bible has of late been so mired in conversations about who's got it right and who's got it wrong that regular people who don't have a stake in the culture wars may have forgotten what a revelation it is to read. It's fun. It's inexplicable. It's dramatic. It's bloody and violent.
Though I don't agree on some of the author's interpretation, reading the "The Good Book" made me in complet agreement with Plotz, "The worst thing to do with a Bible," he says, "is to leave it on the shelf, thinking that someone else may have a better or smarter idea about it. The best thing? Read it. After reading, ask questions, argue and talk."

"The Good Book" is all about you and the bible.
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19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Good Book, April 10, 2009
By Peter M. Ronai (Salem, Oregon) - See all my reviews
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Good Book: The Bizarre, Hilarious, Disturbing, Marvelous, and Inspiring Things I Learned When I Read Every Single Word of the Bible

This is a wonderful book, thoughtful and insightful, yet light and easy to read. It examines the inconsistencies, paradoxes and illogicalities of the Old Testament, as well as pointing out the beauty and the grace of its writing. I enjoyed it so much, I bought two copies, one to give as a gift to a friend.

My only quibble is with the wording of the title. It should read "...Every Single Word of the Old Testament," rather than ..."every Single Word of the Bible," since the author takes refuge in his Jewish roots and confines his analysis to the first 39 books of the Bible. That's a pity, because I think his approach would have much to offer us in our understanding of the rest of "The Good Book."
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23 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Inspired and Inspiring, March 9, 2009
By A Slate.com Reader (Washington, D.C.) - See all my reviews
This is a hilarious, insightful, and fascinating journey thought The Book all of us should have read and most of us haven't. With great wit, Plotz explodes our assumptions about the Bible, helps us see our our favorite stories fresh, and takes us to parts of the Bible we've been afraid to enter alone. Good Book is a great book that will enhance your understanding of religion, art, and most of all, life.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Insight into a different mind-set
Even as an evangelical Christian, I found this book very entertaining and thought-provoking. I rarely agreed with his perpective, but he's a great writer and allowed me to see... Read more
Published 25 days ago by Samuel B. White

5.0 out of 5 stars Laughed Outloud
Yes, I learned things I didn't know from this book. And yes, it caused me to think about things that I though I knew differently. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Daniel Solomon

5.0 out of 5 stars No Better Book Than Plotz
One reviewer criticized this book and suggested that readers find some other book about the Bible that can tell us what the Bible "really" is about. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Hande Z

5.0 out of 5 stars Two thumbs way up
This book had me hooked after page one. Amusing, laugh outloud funny, at times shocking, yet light and easy to read. Read more
Published 3 months ago by sonybalony

3.0 out of 5 stars Blog-type Book: Who CARES What YOU Think of the Bible?
Honestly, I cannot recommend this book, even for those who know the Bible, let alone the uninitiated or unbelieving. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Mr.Alarm

5.0 out of 5 stars reading the old testament
Plotz takes us through the Old Testament. And he does it in a hilarious, disturbing, marvelous and yes, sometimes inspiring way. Read more
Published 4 months ago by adead_poet@hotmail.com

5.0 out of 5 stars Most enlightening and humorous to boot
A must for anyone interested in the Old Testament. I have purchased several more copies for those in my family who share my interest. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Edward E. White

5.0 out of 5 stars VERY UNIQUE!
I bought this for my father for Father's Day. Before I wrapped it, I paged through it a bit, and found myself laughing out loud! I'm going to read it after he does. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Nancy Liz

4.0 out of 5 stars Great, revealing read
Excellent, fascinating read. Whether you are devoutly religious or not at all, if you have an open, curious mind you will enjoy this book. Read more
Published 5 months ago by J. Stewart

4.0 out of 5 stars I Finally Understand.............
I first read this book when I got it from the Library and I now understand what was meant in the bible and it makes sense to me now. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Suzan Rango

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