Ford Madox Ford put forth a method for deciding if you want to read a book. He recommended: "Open the book to page ninety-nine and read, and the quality of the whole will be revealed to you."
Marshal Zeringue has created a blog where the Test is applied to new books—by each book's author. Yesterday Todd Kashdan looked at page 99 of his new book Curious?.
I am pointing out this particular Page 99 Test because I recommend Kashdan's book and agree with him about the importance of curiosity. In fact, in my CARVE Disputes Model™, "C" stands for curiosity.
As Sulynn says in her book review, the seventh chapter is reason enough to buy Curious?:
[T]he chapter that’s worth buying the book for, is Chapter 7: The Anxious Mind and the Curious Spirit. This chapter is effective through the metaphor of the twin control dials labeled Curiosity-Explore and Anxiety, borrowing from Stephen Hayes’ Two Systems (curiosity and anxiety) in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. Anxiety destroys our capacity to tolerate ambiguity and complexity ... and our obsession with managing Anxiety preoccupies our mind, leaving space for little else. We try in vain to control the unyielding Anxiety settings and the more we try, the worse it gets. When Anxiety is at a maximum 10 and Explore is at 0, our openness to accepting our experience or considering novelty is zilch. The trick is to focus on the less obtrusive Explore dial which incidentally is more responsive to manipulation. Kashdan swears on it that when we turn Explore up high, Anxiety stops being stubbornly high even though it may fluctuate over time and situation. Mindfulness is the key here. ... Readers will find strategies to harness the spirit of curiosity to lift the anxious mind - mindset shift, defusion of negative thoughts, or choosing a life of meaning and purpose.
After you read the book, let me know what you think, please. I am curious.
Thanks for posting this referral. I've added this book to my wishlist.
Posted by: Todd I. Stark | June 02, 2009 at 08:40 AM