Some books set out to change your life in dramatic, all-or-nothing fashion. ‘A Year of Living Curiously‘ isn’t one of them – and that’s exactly why it works so well. Instead of promising grand reinventions, it invites you to look up from your phone for a couple of minutes each day and discover something genuinely, delightfully unexpected…
Elizabeth Foley and Beth Coates, already known for their witty takes on history and trivia, have crafted an almanac of 365 short entries, each a neatly wrapped curiosity you can consume before breakfast. One day you’re meeting the Viking mice who hitched rides across continents; the next, you’re pondering the odd fact that the classic heart shape looks nothing like an actual heart. There’s a brief, human explanation of cryptocurrency that won’t send you to sleep, a glance at why your shower curtain insists on flapping inward and even a nod to the Victorian language of flowers. None of it feels forced and none of it demands a single note be taken.
What makes this book feel more like a clever friend than a dusty compendium is its tone: breezy, warm and faintly mischievous. It doesn’t shout “Here’s what you must know”; it simply says, “Hey, did you know this?” And before you realise it, you’re smiling and possibly quoting it to the next person who walks into the kitchen. Olivia Colman, who wrote the foreword, nails it: these are pages that “make you smile every day,” which sounds simple until you remember how few books actually do.
Of course, each snippet is brief by design, so readers looking for deep dives might feel momentarily unsatisfied. But it turns out the real pleasure here isn’t in memorising trivia, it’s in reigniting the small, almost forgotten habit of daily curiosity. Over time, the effect is subtle but surprisingly powerful: you catch yourself noticing odd details on your commute, asking new questions and seeing the familiar world tilt just slightly into wonder!
By the end of the year, you won’t have become a different person. But you might have become someone a little more interesting at dinner parties, a touch more awake to life’s overlooked corners and definitely better at explaining why the heart shape is, anatomically speaking, complete nonsense. ‘A Year of Living Curiously‘ isn’t here to teach you everything, just to remind you how good it feels to be endlessly, unapologetically curious. And really, what could be more useful than that..?
Why is a heart not heart-shaped? Will I ever understand cryptocurrency? What am I doing when I apricate? And is everything getting worse?
Finding the time to appreciate the bounty of our world can be tricky amid the demands of work, family and scrolling our phones. Happily, E. Foley and B. Coates have curated A Year of Living Curiously, a book of daily shots of knowledge that will lift your spirits and expand your mind in a flash. In 365 joyfully random, utterly fascinating entries, you'll learn what the Japanese mean by 'kuchisabishii' and how the Victorians communicate through flowers; you'll start to get quantum computing and discover the secret history of the bobble hat. There are tales of footballing bees and Viking mice, the beginning of the thesaurus and the end of the library of Alexandria.
Spend just two minutes a day with this glorious almanac of curious treasure and you'll end your year full of wonder and just that little bit wiser.
