Jonathan Goldstein is best known for his work on This American Life, and this collection of stories doesn't stray from the comic-adaptations-of-Bible-stories formula he's developed there. It begins with a promising burst of humor, and as with most good comedy, the best lines are about being Jewish: "We were always a nation of early adapters. Monotheism. Liquid soap. We shrug our shoulders and say, 'Why not?' and it is that shoulder-shrugging spirit that's helped us survive." A few of the stories—including "Adam and Eve," the best story of the lot, in which Adam is an idiot who decides "little things are really great because you can put them in your hand as well as your mouth"—have already appeared as monologues on Life.

Much like the real Bible, ...the Bible! drags slightly as it moves away from those first compelling creation stories. "Jonah and the Big Fish" doesn't have the mischievous glee of "Cain and Abel," for instance. And the whole production feels a little bit slight, especially since the book's humongous font size is roughly equivalent to one of Beverly Cleary's Ramona Quimby books for middle readers. But there are enough little gems (in his spare time, King David categorizes the four types of laughter: "laughter at your own expense, laughter at the expense of others, laughter at the human predicament, and laughter at small animals falling off tables") to make the book worthwhile for fans of biblical parody in general or Goldstein's work in particular.

Jonathan Goldstein reads Mon April 13, University Book Store, 7 pm, free.