Answers

Lani Watson’s wonderful book is a study of the nature of questions: different types of questioning, where questions come from, and even how questioning might differ between species. The subject might seem dry and academic, but it’s immensely entertaining, and the author very compelling in the way she presents her argument. The first chapter begins with an epigram of Rainer Maria Rilke’s, from Letters to a Young Poet. Rilke advises regarding apparently unanswerable questions as though they were beautifully bound books written in foreign languages that you can’t read. You hold them in your palm and run your hand over the pages, knowing there is something special within yet beyond your understanding.