Let the Carb-loading Commence

Posted on May 13, 2010 | 12 comments

It’s almost here. I can feel it. My body can feel it. My nerves are on fire and the marathon is on my mind. I can’t really get it out of my mind actually. I catch myself picturing my run at least a few times every day. And with that mental picture, my stomach drops!

I don’t know about other marathoners, but a marathon is really the only race I get nervous for anymore. Since my last marathon (October 2009), I’ve run quite a few races and felt relatively calm before almost all of them. I knew they weren’t THE RACE, the BIG race – they were just training for the real deal. I did end up racing and setting PRs in many of those races, but I never experienced the full-on nervousness. Oh the nerves.

So it’s Thursday and the race is only a few short days away. So it’s time to get serious. My birthday indulgence is done and I am on a strict carb-load, hydrate and eat-right plan. I fully support carb-loading 3-4 days before a marathon, and not gorging yourself on carbs the night before.

For all you marathoners out there – when do you start your carb-loading? And how do you prep the few days before?

So Wednesday truly began my carb-loading. I started off at breakfast with a big bowl of original Puffins and some blueberries on top.

Then for lunch, I heated up some leftover pasta with chicken from Monday night.

Afternoon snacks were Chobani with Kashi Heart to Heart cereal mixed in and three clementines.

After work, I headed to the gym for a quick run. It wasn’t exactly raining outside, but the skies looked ominous, so I played it safe. I ran 3 miles in 26:28 – a nice and easy pace. It was hard going that slow and I actually thought I felt tired, which made me even more nervous. I should not be tired after 3 miles – did I take my taper too far?!

I left the gym and headed home and threw together a quick dinner of baked tilapia with a large side of rice.

I have been seriously ravenous lately! And I’m not running a lot right now, so it feels a little weird. After dinner I was still hungry, so I ate a healthy dessert of strawberries and blueberries sprinkled with crushed puffins on top.

This hit the spot and I was FINALLY full. Again, I tried to go to bed early because I know that I likely won’t get too much sleep the night before the marathon, so I want to be as well rested during the week as possible.

And I had a strange dream about the marathon last night. My husband and I got there and he decided to help me warm up. We ended up getting lost and running like 11 miles before the race even started! There was road work going on and we had to take a detour and then we were sprinting to the start of the race and I was exhausted! Oh the stress.

How do you guys cope with nerves before a race?! Help!

Have a great Thursday all – I am trying to put the race out of my mind for the entire day….starting now!

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Finding a Hidden Gem

Posted on May 12, 2010 | 9 comments

Good morning all! Happy Hump Day – hope it goes by quick. Thank you ALL so much for the birthday wishes yesterday. I am admittedly not the biggest birthday fan, but I took your advice and feigned some excitement.

My day started out with a yummy breakfast of oatmeal with blueberries and more blueberries. 🙂

I had a seriously crazy day at work. We are working with a videographer and he was at our office yesterday, so I was running around trying to coordinate and schedule different shots. I managed to squeeze in a late lunch of salad – no pictures. I also snacked on a granola bar and Chobani yogurt during various down-times throughout the day. It was hectic.

And then around 3:30 my co-workers scheduled a “meeting” where instead of a meeting they got together to wish me happy birthday with GIANT cupcakes. They were seriously huge. I didn’t get a chance to snap any pictures of them before they were devoured. Soo good. But also very filling.

After work I headed home to go out to dinner with Hubby. I had decided earlier in the day that I wanted sushi. I came home to find these lovely flowers waiting for me!

So gorgeous!! I love getting flowers. After I got my lovely flowers we headed out for dinner. I had been looking at Japanese places throughout the day and decided that I wanted to try this little hole-in-the-wall place practically across the street from us. I’d walked by it a million times and never noticed it, but I read some great reviews about it on menupages, yelp and Chowhound.

Anyone that knows me well knows that I am not the fancy, overpriced restaurant kind of girl. I’d rather find a small hidden gem that has quality, delicious, yet affordable food and I will visit it frequently.  And guess what, that is exactly what we discovered last night. We went to Sushi Suki on York Avenue between 83rd and 84th, and had what I consider to be some very yummy sushi. Mind you, I may live in NYC, but I am by no means a sushi connoisseur. But my personal opinion was that it was delicious.

Hubby and I both started off with the miso soup and it was very good. Then we ordered 4 different rolls: Spicy Tuna Roll (Hubby’s favorite); the Boston Roll (shrimp, cucumber & lettuce); the King Crab Roll (with avocado, cucumber & tobiko); and the Lobster Tempura Roll (with avocado, cucumber, lettuce with spicy sweet sauce). I am pretty sure the Lobster Tempura was my favorite, but they were seriously ALL delicious.

I got the impression that many people from our neighborhood visit this place frequently. The owners said hello to many of the patrons and asked about kids, etc. They also knew what many of the patrons’ “usual” selections were. For its small space (only about 10 tables) and less than eye-catching facade, this place is absolutely the local eatery I had been looking for. I think Hubby and I will definitely go back.

Have you ever found a hidden gem like this in your neighborhood? I was seriously so excited!

After our delicious, yet inexpensive meal, Hubby took me for ice-cream at our favorite place in the neighborhood: Emack and Bolio’s. I was so full from dinner I could only manage a small scoop of the Cake Batter ice cream. Have you ever been to Emack and Bolio’s? It is certainly not a frozen-yogurt, low-fat place. But it is a treat to have it every now and then.

We headed home in the freezing cold (it felt like fall yesterday) and I finished my ice-cream in the warmth of our apartment. Then we settled in to finally watch Sherlock Holmes. We got the DVD probably three weeks ago, but haven’t had time to watch it.

I thought it was pretty good. I was very tired and found a few parts where I struggled to stay awake, but I think that says more about my busy schedule than it does the movie.

We finished the movie just in time to switch over to The Biggest Loser to find out the final four. I was happy with the way it turned out.

And that was my busy birthday yesterday! It was a very good day with lots of indulgences. But now I am back on the straight and narrow for the marathon on Sunday. No more sweet treats. It will be good food and carbs for the rest of the time.

Have a great day all!

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Happy Birthday to Me!

Posted on May 11, 2010 | 12 comments

Good morning all! I feel very refreshed today for two reasons: 1) I went to bed last night at 9:30, and 2) It’s my birthday today!!

To be honest, I haven’t really gotten very excited about my birthday in a while, but I am feigning the excitement for you all. I’m not sure what if any birthday plans I have for tonight – maybe go out to dinner or at the very least, convince Hubby to make me dinner. 

 As far as a recap of yesterday, breakfast was very good. Oatmeal with banana and peanut butter in my brand new bowl that my momma gave me for my birthday (thank you!). The old red ones were looking atrocious and she agreed it was time to retire them.

Lunch was a peanut butter and apricot jelly sammy (I am loving the apricot lately). I also had a side of carrots.

My afternoon snacks were a blueberry Chobani yogurt and an apple. Boring – no pics.

After work, Hubby and I set out for a nice WINDY run along the East River promenade. I swear, every time I run with my husband the weirdos come out: the man talking to himself and gesticulating, the strange girl dancing enthusiastically by herself and singing, the car that veered off the road unexpectedly and came to a screeching halt, etc. Seriously, every time we run together we encounter strange people.

My Garmin was acting up and didn’t start working until more than .5 miles into our run. Here are our stats from our 4+ mile run, of which only part was captured.

Mile 1 – 8:33
Mile 2 – 8:03
Mile 3 – 8:27
.86 – 6:54

Total mileage – 3.86 in 31:59. Average pace – 8:17 minute miles.

I think in total, we probably ran about 4.5 miles. I am taking tonight off as a rest day and a birthday treat.

After our run, I had planned to make chicken and rice and soon realized we had no rice. Second choice was chicken and pasta. I also threw some carrots into the mix as well.

After dinner, Bill proceeded to become engrossed in the Stanley Cup hockey game and I think Murphy wanted some attention. When Bill finally picked him up, he showed off a little bit.

Big kitty stretch!

Like I said, my night ended pretty quickly when I turned in at 9:30 p.m. I was exhausted from getting very little sleep on Sunday night. I am feeling a little more rested and awake today.

So what about you guys? What is the best birthday you can remember? And what do you like to do on your b-day?

Have a great day all!

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Long Lost Blogger

Posted on May 10, 2010 | 11 comments

Hi all – how is everyone? I don’t know because I haven’t been able to check many blogs lately and have been so super busy – I have no clue what is going on with people. I am trying to catch up, but I’ve missed so much!

Things with me have been crazy at work and outside of work. Last week I only ran 3 of my 5 training days – eeek! And my marathon is this Sunday!! Can you believe it? I can’t. My nerves are out of control.

This past weekend we headed to Utica, N.Y. to visit Bill’s family and celebrate Mother’s day and his sister’s 50th birthday. Our drive up Friday night was good, the weather was clear and slightly cool, but not too bad.

On Saturday morning, I woke up to some blustery weather – about 37 degrees, overcast and a slight drizzle. I decided to suck it up and bang out my last “long” training run. It wasn’t so long – only 8 miles, but I wanted to make sure I got it in. Here are my stats from the run:

Mile 1 – 8:32
Mile 2 – 8:08
Mile 3 – 8:18
Mile 4 – 8:07
Mile 5 – 8:33
Mile 6 – 8:12
Mile 7 – 8:30
Mile 8 – 8:27
.23 – 1:43

Total mileage – 8.23 miles in 1:08:33. Average page – 8:20 minute miles.

I finished up my last “long run” and felt pretty great. And as I did so, I finally reached over 500 miles on my training plan.  I won’t reach my total goal mileage, but I’m not too far off.

On Saturday night we went to dinner at a Greek restaurant in Whitesboro, N.Y. called Symeon’s. It was pretty good. I had the THRACIAN CHICKEN: Fresh boneless skinless chicken breasts marinated and charbroiled  and served with rice pilaf. I could have gone a more authentic Greek route, but I wasn’t feeling entirely adventurous. I’ve found as races approach, I tend to try to play things a little safe.

What is not so safe is that everyone around me seems to be getting sick! Bill’s one sister didn’t make it this weekend because she was hit with the flu, his nephew’s kids were sick, and then my parents both got hit with a cold of some sort on Sunday just before we were planning to drop by. My mom called to tell me to stay away because she didn’t want me getting whatever they have right before the big race.  Ahhh!!

On Sunday I was originally planning to run 3-4 miles in the afternoon, but I scratched that idea when it started SNOWING!! I kid you not. It was really snowing in Utica. It was insane. It was freezing cold outside and I didn’t have appropriate running clothes with me, nor did I feel like confusing the heck out of my body. I just kept praying that this coming weekend is drastically different. Can you imagine running a marathon in the snow? I’m sure people do it and do great, but those are not the right conditions for me.

The rest of the day Sunday was busy and we didn’t actually get home to NYC until 11:30 p.m. and I didn’t get to sleep until 12:30 a.m., so I am pretty darn tired today. I just keep telling myself that I need to get through this week and power through the marathon and then I get a break!! I need one.

How was your weekend? Do you seem to have busier times during the year? For me, Spring always seems to be chock-full of activities and my free time is non-existent!

I hope to catch up on what’s going on today. Have a great day all!

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The World According to Irving

Posted on May 5, 2010 | 6 comments

Good morning all. How are you? I’ve been a frazzled mess recently. It primarily has to do with stuff going on at work. I may have been in the office yesterday at 7:45 a.m. It was hectic to say the least.

Anyway – I’ll do a quick recap of the past two days. Breakfast on Monday was oatmeal with mixed frozen fruit.

Lunch was salad – unpictured and then I didn’t really snack in the afternoon because that’s when things go C-RAZY. I probably would have work to all hours of the night, if it hadn’t been one of my best friend’s birthday on Monday! I met up with Katie after work for a quick dinner. We were going to try Blossom Bistro on the UES, but we simply didn’t have enough time, so we hit up Ariba Ariba! instead. And I had a much-needed margarita, along with this a yummy and HUGE chicken burrito.

It was very filling. After our quick dinner, Katie and I headed to the 92 Street Y to see John Irving speak. Mr. Irving is one of our favorite authors. We saw him speak back in October and simply could NOT pass up the opportunity to see him again. He is so amazing and so charismatic. Hey there John!

Mr. Irving spoke from 8:00 – 9:30 and even shared some draft material from a potential future book, as well as some interesting and entertaining stories. He is soo great! They were pretty explicit about no photos or video, so I put my camera away for the night.

Are you an Irving fan? What books of his have you read? What is your favorite?

I haven’t read them all, but I’ve read: A Prayer for Owen Meany, The Cider House Rules, The Water Method Man, The World According to Garp and A Widow for One Year. I have his newest book (an autographed copy!), so that is on my list of books to read. I’m pretty sure Cider House is my favorite. 🙂

After the reading, I called it a night so that I could get up super early on Tuesday. My breakfast was a bowl of Puffins with Almond Milk.

This was my first time trying Puffins and I really liked them. So much so, that they might have been my dinner last night as well. Hehehe.

No other food photos from yesterday. I was busy, busy all day. I had a Peanut Butter and Jelly (Apricot – yum!) sandwich for lunch and my usual snacks.

After work I FORCED myself to run at the gym. There were big rain clouds threatening, so I played it safe and ran 5 miles at the gym in 41:25. I can not believe that my marathon is NEXT WEEKEND!! Holy cow.

I am trying to get myself in a good frame of mine – build my confidence and visualize myself running my marathon strong and in the time I want. I need to figure out my race-day outfit and all that as well. I’m getting so excited and nervous!! And of course, I am praying for perfect weather!

Have a great Hump Day all! Hubby comes home from being out of town – so I’m super excited about that! YAY!

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Wedding Fun & Marathon Nerves

Posted on May 3, 2010 | 9 comments

Good morning all – welcome to another work week. Blah! This past weekend flew by so fast. Did yours?

On Friday after work I headed upstate on the train. I had dinner with two of my best friends that night, including some pasta to help fuel my run the next morning.

Saturday’s run was a good one – maybe because it was so much shorter than my last weekend run (21+ miles). My friend Lauren also met up with me for about four of the miles, so that made it go by quickly as well. Here are my stats from that run:

Mile 1 – 8:19
Mile 2 – 9:10
Mile 3 – 9:23
Mile 4 – 9:04
Mile 5 – 8:38
Mile 6 – 8:16
Mile 7 – 8:42
Mile 8 – 8:27
Mile 9 – 8:31
Mile 10 – 8:20
Mile 11 – 8:33
Mile 12 – 8:19
.22 – 1:47

Total mileage – 12.22 miles in 1:45:34. Average pace – 8:38 minute miles

I felt great after this run! After my run I hung around my parent’s house for a bit and then got ready for my friend Jenny’s wedding in Queensbury, N.Y.

They had a gorgeous day for their wedding and the ceremony happened to be outside, so that was perfect. Here’s Hubby and I at our table taking the requisite table photo.

And that’s my friend Lauren giving us bunny ears. Thanks girl!

And here’s a group shot of some of the girls with the bridey.

The cocktail hour was amazing – there were sooo many stations. But I completely forgot to take any photos because I was so intent on hitting up every station…and I did.

Our dinner was delicious – the menu was chicken and Chateaubriand, with a twice-baked potato and grilled broccoli and carrots.

And then my favorite part – dessert!

I loved the wedding cake with the chocolate cream-pudding in the middle. And the icecream in the mini cup was fabulous as well. I cleared my plate.

All in all, it was a really great wedding and weekend. I wanted to be super motivated and run on Sunday, but it was just too hot and muggy and I was too tired. So last week, it looks like I only got in 3 of my 5 days of running. Apparently, I am taking the taper time to the next level and am just being straight lazy! Hopefully I can get in my five days this week. I am losing training motivation!

Any advice from marathon veterans out there – how to stay motivated during the taper time? I don’t want to ruin all my training by not tapering properly.

And in other marathon-related nerves – I had an extremely bizarre dream last night. I was running the marathon with my high school cross-country team, but it was more like an obstacle course. We had to squeeze through hidden doors and strange routes and then our coach stopped us for a full 5 minutes to have a chat. I was flipping out and yelling “we are running a marathon – there’s no time for talking!”

It was not a fun dream. I think I can say that I am officially nervous for the Poconos Run for Red Marathon on May 16th. Eeeks it’s so close!

Have a great Monday all!

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F-F-F-Friday!!

Posted on April 30, 2010 | 6 comments

Hi all! Phew – I’ve been a little MIA lately for various reason: busy, semi-sick and more busy. When I last left you, I’d have my coughing attack on the subway. I’ve started feeling much better in the past two days, but I still have this itchy dry throat feeling that really gets me coughing. It seems to be worse at night. Last night was especially bad when I went to bed. I’m thinking post-nasal drip? (Eww isn’t that the worst name for it ever?)

Anyway – enough about my coughing problems! I’m hoping they will fade away soon. I think a lot of it has to do with allergies. I took another rest day on Wednesday because I still wasn’t feeling hot. But then last night, I got my butt back out there running. I was excited to run after my short two-day hiatus.

Do you ever find taking a mini break rejuvenates you and makes you appreciate your runs more?

I headed out for a nice run after work last night – the weather was fabulous. Not fabulous: my Garmin trying to locate satellites. I think after its little freezing glitch on Sunday, Garms was a little out of wack. I stood around waiting for it to locate satellites for a solid 10 minutes before I decided the heck with it! I needed to get out there and had a decent idea of the distance, so I told myself I’d starts Garms whenever it was ready.

I also put myself to a little test last night. Since Garms was having issues anyway, I decided to run at whatever pace felt good and comfortable and then I’d check my pace only after I got home (once Garms started working anyway).

Garms finally located those darn satellites after about 1.25 miles, so I pressed start and then firmly averted my eyes and refused to look at Garms again until the end. This was to be my true test of what pace I think I could potentially maintain during the marathon. Here are my stats from mile 1.25+ on.

Mile 1 – 8:24
Mile 2 – 8:25
Mile 3 – 8:14
Mile 4 – 8:39
Mile 5 – 8:13
.65 – 5:46

Total Garmin mileage – 5.65 miles in 47:43. Average pace – 8:27 minute miles. In total, I estimate that I ran 6.65 miles.

And I can certainly live with those times/pace for my marathon. I think this was a good test to put myself through. Sometimes I feel like I rely on my Garmin too much and wonder if I’m only running faster because I’m watching my pace or if I’m really comfortable at that pace.

If you have a Garmin, do you ever run without it? Do you ever feel like it’s dictating your runs too much?

I think a break here and there is good, so you can appreciate the run for how it makes you feel, rather than how fast you ran it.

Before I sign off, I’ll leave you with this gem of a photo from the More Magazine Half Marathon on Sunday. I’m looking pretty fab:

It’s okay to be jealous! Hahaha. What’s with my face? I look totally bored! Also – you can definitely notice that I have a tiny pea-sized-head in this picture because my hat is completely overwhelming me. No clue at what point in the race this was taken. But I love the water on the ground – proves it was realllly raining.

Alright all – have a fantastic weekend! I’m headed upstate for a wedding and am super excited. It’s going to be gorgeous – 85 degrees. Happy wedding weekend to Jenny and Kevin!!

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A Room-Clearing Cough

Posted on April 28, 2010 | 6 comments

Good morning all. I’m going to make this a quick post and I have no photos from yesterday to share. There wasn’t anything really outstanding to document. Yesterday I was soo pumped about Ireland, but my excitement slowly started to fade as I realized I wasn’t feeling too great. I think I probably should have just rested on Monday night, rather than running that three mile recovery run.

I was supposed to run 6 miles last night, according to my training plan, but as I headed home after work on the subway I had a major coughing attack. I had pretty much been coughing consistently all day. It was like a tickle in my throat that I could not get rid of. But then on the subway this tickle decided to attack me and I was coughing incessantly. And I was coughing so hard that tears started streaming down my face. Yeah – it was not pretty. I considered getting off the subway at 59th street, just so I could cough without shame. The man next to me first turned away and then actually got up from his seat and stood by the door. How embarrassing! I felt like a leper.

I made it to 86th street with more than a few glares and looks of reproach from other passengers and then continued to cough all the way home. It was awful. So I decided to curl up on the couch, drink tea, and take a cough suppressant instead of running. I also took a puff of my inhaler and that really seemed to help. So now I’m not sure if it’s my allergies,  a cold or my asthma acting up.

Running with Asthma

Yup – I have an inhaler because I have allergy induced asthma…and I’m a runner. Kind of seems like a paradox right? I only recently developed asthma. When we got Murphy (our cat) back in 2006, I quickly realized I was allergic to him, but he’d already become part of our family and I wasn’t about to give him up.

I mean look at him! How could I ever give him up?

So instead, I visited an allergist (who was awesome btw) and now take a daily allergy pill, use Nasonex and have a rescue inhaler. I actually started getting allergy shots last year, but stopped that process only a few months later.

 The ironic part is that marathon training, both this year and last, has actually helped with my asthma. I’ve had to use my inhaler less and less. I think my long runs actually trained my body to breathe in a different way and made my lung capacity stronger.

Have any other runners with asthma or other breathing problems experienced a similar or different reaction? Advice?

Anyway – that’s my random tangent of the day. The cough is much better now, but still lingering a bit. I’m still not entirely sure of the cause yet. I may try to run 4-5 miles tonight on the treadmill, since weather.com indicates that the wind is supposed to be ferocious and I don’t feel like fighting that.

Hope you all have a good Hump Day! And remember, next time you see someone having a coughing fit on mass transit, don’t glare at them and make them feel uncomfortable because you can be sure they already feel like an outcast.

P.S. – The new book I’m reading is: Cutting for Stone

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Posted in Books, Uncategorized

Ireland, Here We Come!!

Posted on April 27, 2010 | 10 comments

Good morning all! Happy Tuesday. Hope your Monday wasn’t too unbearable. Mine was a-okay and probably more than okay because Hubby and I officially booked our trip to Ireland!! Yahooo! We are leaving on August 29th and returning on September 10th. So feel free to send any suggestions my way! So excited. Having a vacation to look forward to just makes everything a little bit better!

What is the best vacation you’ve been on? And where was the last place you went?

Our last vacation was our honeymoon to Hawaii and it was AWESOME!! We went to Maui and Kauai and had such a great time. But that was back in October 2008, so I think we’re due for a nice little trip. Plus, I have family in Ireland that I’d love to meet and Hubby is the quintessential Irishman, with red hair and all! It’s going to be great! Now I just have to get an updated Passport. Not fun.

Other than booking our trip, yesterday was a pretty same-old-same-old day. Breakfast was some boring Kashi Heart to Heart cereal.

Lunch was a salad with a few Rice Chips on the side.

Okay, so it might have been more than a few chips. And then later in the afternoon I had a Chobani yogurt with granola.

After work I did manage to squeeze in a quick recovery run on the treadmill at the gym. I just ran 3 miles in 27:44. A nice and easy pace. But running on the treadmill seems so much harder these days.

When I got home after my quick run I made a quick dinner – a chicken breast grilled on the Foreman with a side salad. Someone had ordered this salad for Hubby for lunch and it had beets in it, which Hubby does not like. So he saved it for me.

I ate about half of the salad and saved the rest (prob for tonight). It was really delicious. Field green lettuce with beets, sliced apple and goat cheese. I drizzled some Newman’s Sesame Ginger Dressing on top.

I’m still so excited about Ireland. It’s a ways away, so I need to chill out. Plus I have a marathon on May 16th that I should be excited (or nervous) about first!  And this coming weekend we’re going to a wedding upstate – so much to look forward to!!

What are you looking forward to?

Have a great Tuesday all!

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Book Review: The Year of Living Biblically

Posted on April 26, 2010 | 11 comments

I just finished this book on Sunday. Here is my review, it’s also posted under my Book Review page. You should definitely check this one out!

By: A.J. Jacobs

I first saw this book sitting at my friend’s apartment. She hadn’t read it yet, but it came to her highly recommended. I was interested. My interest grew when I went to Borders and couldn’t find the book in the normal literature section I frequent. I had to seek out some help. I hesitantly said the name of the book to one of the Borders employees and the guy immediately said “Ahh yes, Jacobs. He’s in the Humor section.”

I visited the new section the employee led me to and selected a book from the ones on the display table. Already this book seemed a little different.

And the differences didn’t stop there. This book was laugh-out-loud-funny from start to finish! I’m not sure what exactly I was expecting when I picked it up, but it turned out to be a fun and unique journey told by a self-depreciating and amusing narrator.

A.J. Jacob’s first book “The Know-It-All” was the memoir of his journey of reading the Encyclopedia from A to Z. Likewise, “The Year of Living Biblically” is his journey of reading and trying to live by all the rules outlined in the Bible. Sure, it’s a strange sort of journey and one that doesn’t sound particularly fun or exciting, but Jacobs’ narration makes it enthralling.

In short, this guy is hysterical! I want him to be my friend or family member because, surely, everyone in his life is immensely entertained by him day-in and day-out. His outlook and approach to life is totally refreshing and unique. And his candid self evaluations are priceless. Not mention that I actually learned quite a few things about the Bible.

But don’t get me wrong, you don’t want to read this book for any kind of biblically explanation or earnest insight. If you’re looking for that, you might be a little put-off or offended by some of Jacobs’ commentary. I for one was not, but just a word of warning.

I do recommend this book to anyone looking for a break from the routine novel norm, seeking amusement and character, and who isn’t afraid to laugh out loud on public transit. Or have bystanders constantly glancing quizzically at your book cover – yeah I got that a lot. It’s funny, it’s perceptive, it’s distinctive and certainly unforgettable. So I say – give it a shot!

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