So maybe I’m going a little overboard on this A.J. Jacobs thing. He’s basically a regular guy who has a way with words, who has a hilarious way of writing about the things that happen in his life. He landed one great job at Entertainment Weekly, then another at Esquire, then came up with a couple of great book ideas in which he immerses himself in odd activities.

But I’m probably not overdoing it. I like to be able to identify with my literary heroes. Like anyone who reads this “stunt journalism” I imagine myself jumping into things feet first.

Because he works at Esquire, I heard about his book and figured I should read it. It was about reading the encyclopedia. It caused me to LOL, literally, while reading on my balcony one spring day. I hungered for more, so I picked up his book about living Biblically soon after.

He quickly produced a third book, called The Guinea Pig Diaries, and I’m reading it now. So when I heard he was coming to town for the Idea Festival, it was a must-see.

It’s a big thrill to meet one of your literary heroes, so when he walked by about 15 minutes before his presentation today, I tried not to gush too much. But we did say a few words, and he actually knew about the ‘Ville Voice. Wow.

Earlier in the day he did a radio interview with Francene, who happens to be a friend of Jacobs. She got him to call me on the phone earlier. She calls my fascination with him a “man-crush.”

With that as background, here’s some highlights from what A.J. had to say at the Idea Festival.

Read the Rest After the Jump…

He talked about the useless knowledge from the encyclopedia, such as how opossums have 13 nipples. Rene Descartes had a fetish for cross-eyed women. Can’t forget that one.

But the experiences have bigger themes, and the project made him hungrier to read more books, and want to know about people featured in the 33,000 pages of the encyclopedia.

It’s fascinating to think about the idea of living Biblically. Of his religious background, he says Olive Garden is to Italian food as he is to religion. So he bought a bunch of Bibles and wrote down all the rules in them.  He grew a ZZ Top-level beard. He couldn’t wear mixed fibers. But he said some of the rules eventually made sense. He stoned an adulterer, a man he met in Central Park.

He feels a lot of gratitude, since the Bible requires constant prayers of gratitude. With the hundreds of things that go right every day, we shouldn’t focus on the few that go wrong.

For his current book, he undergoes a series of experiments of immersion. He mentioned the chapters on outsourcing his life to a group of people in India, who did things like argue with his wife and read bedtime stories to his son. Who wouldn’t want to do that?

In another, he tried something called Radical Honesty, which means you should say out loud everything that comes into your brain. The chapter is titled “I think you’re fat.” You get the idea.

In another, he lived by George Washington’s 110 rules of life. It’s all about self-sacrifice, respect, retaining your dignity and not adjusting your privates in public. He talks about civility, mentioning Kanye West and Joe Wilson. As a New York Jew, he couldn’t revel in the 2008 election. Lesson: don’t rub it in.

Finally, he devoted a chapter to his wife Julie, who had put up with all rules about Biblical living and endured the voracious reading. He spent a month doing what she said, like providing foot massages and watching Kate Hudson movies.

Jacobs left us with a great philosophy of life that he’s adopted from Ian Fleming, who he noted wrote all those James Bond books but also Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

“Never say no to adventure, otherwise you’ll lead a very dull life.”