The author combines the results of research with anecdotes to provide an illuminating volume on why curiosity is so important to lifelong learning and our advancement as a global society. He examines the risks inherent in some current technological trends, such as smart phones and internet searches, and how to overcome them. He looks at what arouses curiosity and what quenches it.

Topics include:
- Three primary types of curiosity (diversive, epistemic, and empathic)
- The differences between puzzles and mysteries
- The psychology of curiosity and how it is revealed at an early age
- How we can cultivate curiosity in our children and ourselves
- Trends in education (he has some definite views on where we need to improve)

This book is a combination of psychology, sociology, history, and science. It is entertaining and informative. Some of his theories about education are different from other material I have read, so I am off to do more research. Ian Leslie has spurred my curiosity about curiosity.
( )

The author provides an investigation into curiosity. He looks at the value, history, implications, and benefits of curiosity. The power of curiosity in development and success is examined in children, learning, and innovation. I particularly liked the ending of the book that discussed the value of curiosity and learning in happiness and warding off depression. I agree that an interest in learning and in life makes it worth living. I liked the book although it is sometimes not as interesting as I hoped. ( )

Some good anecdotes and references, like one study from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development in Maryland, in which "[t]he researchers measured the propensity of 374 five-month-old babies to crawl and probe and fiddle, and then tracked their progress over the following fourteen years. They found that the ones doing best at school aged fourteen were the ones who had been the most energetically exploratory babies." Claiming that curiosity is the key here is of course jumping to conclusions, but I have always found early (baby-level) markers that predict subsequent behavior very interesting. Many places in the book it is annoying how selection issues are often ignored, Leslie writes uncritically about the "effect" of reading to children, watching television, etc., when it is just run-of-the-mill correlations. In chapter 3 too he starts off unthinkingly critical of the internet, although more nuanced as the chapter went on. An ok book. ( )

NF