A.J. 雅各布斯

小阿诺德·史蒂芬·贾各布斯（英语：Arnold Stephen Jacobs, Jr.1968年3月20日—），简称为A·J·贾各布斯是一名记者、作家和讲师。他在君子杂志担任编辑，同时也热衷于写关于他所亲身尝试的各式各样的富创意的生活实验的书。作品翻为中文的有《我的大英百科狂想曲》、《我的圣经狂想曲》 、《我的白老鼠狂想曲》等。

简传

早年生活

1968年，贾各布斯出生于纽约市的一个犹太裔家庭，他的父亲老阿诺德·贾各布斯是名律师，母亲是爱伦·克尔。他还有一个姐姐贝丽儿·贾各布斯。他毕业于道尔顿学校和布朗大学。

Arnold Stephen Jacobs Jr., commonly called A.J. Jacobs (born March 20, 1968), is an American journalist, author, and lecturer best known for writing about his lifestyle experiments. He is an editor at large for Esquire and has worked for the Antioch Daily Ledger and Entertainment Weekly. Books written by him include The Know-It-All (2004), The Year of Living Biblically (2007) and The Guinea Pig Diaries (2009).

Early life and education

Jacobs was born in New York City to secular Jewish parents, Arnold Jacobs Sr., a lawyer, and Ellen Kheel. He has one sister, Beryl Jacobs. He was educated at the Dalton School and Brown University.

Career

Jacobs has said that he sees his life as a series of experiments in which he immerses himself in a project or lifestyle, for better or worse, then writes about what he learned. The genre is often called immersion journalism or "stunt journalism".

In one of these "stunts", Jacobs read all 32 volumes of the Encyclopædia Britannica, which he wrote about in his book, The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World (2004). In the book, he also chronicles his personal life along with various endeavors like joining Mensa. The book spent eight weeks on The New York Times Best Seller list. NPR's Weekend Edition ran a series of segments featuring the unusual facts Jacobs learned. Jacobs also wrote a column for Mental Floss magazine describing the highlights of each volume. The book received positive reviews in The New York Times, Time magazine and USA Today. However, Joe Queenan panned it in the New York Times Book Review. Queenan called the book "corny, juvenile, smug, tired" and "interminable" and characterized Jacobs as "a prime example of that curiously modern innovation: the pedigreed simpleton." Four months later, Jacobs responded in an essay entitled "I Am Not a Jackass".

In 2005 Jacobs out-sourced his life to India such that personal assistants would do everything for him from answering his e-mails, reading his children good-night stories, and arguing with his wife. Jacobs wrote about it in an Esquire article called "My Outsourced Life" (2005). The article was excerpted in The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss. Jacobs also talked about his outsourcing experiences on a Moth storytelling podcast.

In another experiment Jacobs wrote an article for Esquire called "I Think You're Fat" (2007) about the experiment he conducted with Radical Honesty, a lifestyle of total truth-telling promoted by Virginia therapist Brad Blanton, whom Jacobs interviewed for the article.

Jacobs' book The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible (2007) chronicles his experiment to live for one year according to all the moral codes expressed in the Bible, including stoning adulterers, blowing a shofar at the beginning of every month, and refraining from trimming the corners of his facial hair (which he followed by not trimming his facial hair at all). The book spent 11 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, and Jacobs gave a TED talk about what he learned during the project. In May 2017, CBS Television picked up a TV series based on the book. It was originally renamed By the Book for television, but later changed to Living Biblically.

The Guinea Pig Diaries: My Life as an Experiment (2009) is a series of first-person essays about his experiences with various guides for human behavior.

Jacobs is the author of The Two Kings: Elvis and Jesus (1994), an irreverent comedic comparison of Elvis Presley and Jesus; and America Off-Line (1996).

In his book Drop Dead Healthy: One Man's Humble Quest for Bodily Perfection (2012), he explores different ways humans can bring their bodies to peak health, from diet to exercise. He wrote the book while walking on a treadmill. Jacobs gave a related TED talk about this health quest entitled "How Healthy Living Nearly Killed Me".