A Literary Prescription for

Curiosity

For the restless, delighted wish to know what happens next, and to look a little closer.

Curiosity is one of the great engines of a good life. It is the restless, delighted wish to know more: how things work, what lies over the hill, what it is like to be someone else. It keeps us learning, keeps us young, and quietly keeps despair at bay, because as long as you still want to know what happens next, you are still reaching towards life. These books and poems are for feeding that hunger, and for remembering how much wonder the ordinary world still holds.

Books Poetry Quotes & Prose

Books

Prescribed reading

Some of these make the world and the mind irresistibly fascinating, and some are stories that follow curious souls wherever their questions lead. Non-fiction and fiction together, they share one delighted conviction: that wonder is a habit worth feeding, and that the ordinary world is far stranger and richer than we usually pause to notice.

What If?

Randall Munroe · 2014

Munroe answers gloriously absurd hypothetical questions, what if you tried to hit a baseball at the speed of light, using real, rigorous science and brilliant humour. It is a joyful celebration of curiosity for its own sake. Endlessly entertaining and quietly educational, it is the perfect antidote to a mind gone stale.

A Short History of Nearly Everything

Bill Bryson · 2003

Bryson sets out to understand, well, nearly everything, from the Big Bang to cells, and carries you along on a wave of genuine, contagious wonder. Warm, funny and endlessly fascinating, it makes the whole of science feel like the best story ever told. A marvellous read for reawakening your amazement at simply being here at all.

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat

Oliver Sacks · 1985

Sacks’s famous case studies of the strange and wondrous workings of the human brain read like the most curious tales imaginable, and are all true. Compassionate and endlessly fascinating, they turn neurology into pure wonder. Essential for anyone curious about the mystery sitting quietly inside their own skull.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Lewis Carroll · 1865

Carroll’s immortal tale is curiosity made into a story: Alice follows a hurrying rabbit down a hole and into a world where every rule bends and every corner holds a new marvel. Playful, strange and endlessly inventive, it is a hymn to the wondering mind. A joy at any age for anyone who still likes to ask ‘but why?’

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Mark Haddon · 2003

Haddon’s moving novel is narrated by Christopher, a boy whose intensely curious, logical mind turns a neighbourhood mystery into an unforgettable journey. Seeing the world through his eyes makes the ordinary suddenly strange and fascinating again. A tender, illuminating read that celebrates a mind that never stops noticing and asking.

The Phantom Tollbooth

Norton Juster · 1961

Juster’s beloved children’s classic sends a bored boy through a magic tollbooth into a land where learning is the greatest adventure of all. Witty, wise and bursting with wordplay, it is a joyful argument for curiosity as the cure for boredom. Delightful for readers of any age who have forgotten how interesting everything is.

Poems about curiosity

For the wondering eye

from “Auguries of Innocence”

William Blake, c.1803

To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.

Blake’s famous opening is curiosity distilled: look closely enough at the smallest thing, and the whole universe opens inside it. It is an invitation to the kind of attention that turns a grain of sand into a marvel. Four lines to keep close as a reminder that wonder is always within arm’s reach.

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from “The Listeners”

Walter de la Mare, 1912

‘Is there anybody there?’ said the Traveller,
Knocking on the moonlit door;
And his horse in the silence champed the grasses
Of the forest’s ferny floor…

De la Mare’s haunting poem is built entirely from a question and its unanswered echo, and it leaves the mystery gloriously, deliberately open. It is a poem that rewards the curious and refuses to explain itself. Wonderful for anyone who loves the pull of a question with no tidy answer, only more to imagine.

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Three Haiku

Matsuo Bashō, c.1686, trans. from the Japanese

An old silent pond…
a frog jumps into the pond,
splash! Silence again.
———
The first cold shower;
even the monkey seems to want
a little coat of straw.

Bashō, the master of haiku, spent his life paying exquisite attention to small, passing moments, a frog, a shower of rain, and finding a whole world in each. His poems are curiosity as a way of being: look, and look again. A perfect model of the wondering eye, capturing the marvel in the most ordinary instant.

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Quotes & Prose

Quotes about curiosity to keep

The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.

Albert Einstein

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We keep moving forward, opening new doors, because we’re curious.

Walt Disney

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The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.

Dorothy Parker

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Millions saw the apple fall, but Newton was the one who asked why.

Bernard Baruch

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Curiosity is the opposite of despair. As long as you still want to know what happens next, you are already halfway back to life.

Georgia Clare

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From Georgia

A fresh pair of eyes

A gentle practice for meeting the present moment with fresh attention, and an essay on using your imagination to reach towards a life that genuinely interests you.

Be Here Now: Embracing the Present Moment

Guided meditation by Georgia Clare

A grounding practice for coming fully into the present and meeting it, as the curious do, with fresh eyes and open attention.

Listen Now For Free

Use Your Imagination to Create a Better Future

Personal essay by Georgia Clare · The Library

On feeding your curiosity about what is possible, and letting a livelier imagination pull you towards a future worth reaching for.

Read the Essay →

The 21-Day Meditation Course

Guided Meditation Course · Georgia Clare

Three weeks of short, guided meditations to help you build a calm, steady daily practice, one day at a time.

Start the 21-Day Course →

Questions people ask

Reading for Curiosity

Where should I start?

Start with What If? by Randall Munroe, a gloriously fun book that answers absurd hypothetical questions with real science, and reminds you how delightful it is to wonder. And if you would rather a story, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is curiosity itself, tumbling down the rabbit hole after every strange new thing. The poems below are small invitations to look closer.

What can I read to feel more curious?

Books that reawaken your sense of wonder. A Short History of Nearly Everything and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat make the world and the mind endlessly fascinating, while The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and The Phantom Tollbooth follow curious minds on unforgettable journeys. Or begin with the poems and the lines to keep further down the page.

Which quotes about curiosity are worth keeping?

Quotes worth keeping include “I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.” (Albert Einstein), “The important thing is not to stop questioning.” (Albert Einstein) and “We keep moving forward, opening new doors, because we’re curious.” (Walt Disney). You will find these and more in the quotes section above.

Can reading really make me more curious?

It genuinely can, and reading is curiosity in its purest form: the simple, restless wish to know what happens, how things work, what it is like to be someone else. Every good book widens the world and leaves you wanting more of it. When life feels flat or closed over, a curious book can crack it open again. Wonder, it turns out, is a habit you can feed.

Curiosity

Prescribed reading

For the wondering eye

Quotes about curiosity to keep

A fresh pair of eyes

Reading for Curiosity

Where should I start?

What can I read to feel more curious?

Which quotes about curiosity are worth keeping?

Can reading really make me more curious?

More prescriptions await.