Customer Reviews

The Book of Questions

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Gregory Stock has assembled 200 questions "...about your values, your beliefs, and your life; love, money, sex, integrity, generosity, pride and death..." (p. 5). These questions are not meant to have right answers--or short ones. They can stimulate group discussion or prompt solitary reflection. The author has selected them to help us learn more about ourselves.

A sample of the more interesting ones:

- If you were to die this evening with no opportunity to communicate with anyone, what would you most regret not having told someone? Why haven't you told them yet?
- Would you give up half of what you now own for a pill that would permanently change you so that one hour of sleep each day would fully refresh you?
- Do your close friends tend to be older or younger than you?
- When you tell a story, do you often exaggerate or embellish it? Why?
- Would you be willing to go to a slaughterhouse and kill a cow? Do you eat meat?
- Would you rather play a game with someone more or less talented than yourself? Would it matter who was watching?
- If you could change anything about the way you were raised, what would it be?

The book is recommended a basis for personal reflection, to stimulate discussion with a close friend, or as a basis for after dinner discussion. Think a bit about each question before you ask it of anyone else, though. Some questions probe a bit deeply for casual conversation.

I have the screen saver version of this book. It's a great way to have these interesting questions pop up for a "thinking moment" throughout my day. And people who pass by my computer love to stop for a quick ponder as well and often engage me in conversation about a question.

This book is filled with questions which are great conversation starters, and make you think. We are hoping to begin a group of Questioners who gather and discuss, using the questions in this book. Highly recommended.

Gregory Stock has put together a geart book filled with insightful and thought provoking questions. This little book has so much potential between its pages.

I originally purchased this book for myself in my continuous quest to know myself better. It took some time to get through the 200 questions, some of them easy and some requiring great moments of contemplation. This book is also useful at parties, events, dinners and when meeting someone new. It would be a great exercise for relationships as well...opening up a whole new ball game I imagine. But mostly it is just fun and something interesting to think about or discuss with friends.

Gregory Stock and one of his friends sat down and brainstormed for hours to come up with a compilation of questions many of us ask ourselves, or, we may ask in a group get together to ellicit conversation. This is a great book to come up with questions that we want to discuss with others, and even ideas we need to discuss within ourselves. I would have rated this a 5 however I felt some of the questions were double-bind questions where someone is asked a question on the lesser of two evils. I definately is a good conversation piece and good to have around for discussion or even just thinking and introspection.

I bought this book recently and have so far interested five of my friends enough into wanting copies of their own. I brought this book over to a friend of mine's house and we sat up for an extended period of time going over some of the questions and discussing them. I think this book would be great to bring to either some camping trip or perhaps an evening with friends over drinks or coffee. A particular question I found to be interesting was the question, "If you could spend one year in perfect happiness but afterward would remember nothing of the experience would you do so? If not, why not?" This is one in particular my friend and I went over for quite a long time. Anyway, this book is filled with a variety of questions, and as the book says, each one is different from the one before, so you could literally read each on after another and have an unexpected question come up. I find the book to be thought-provoking, and as with all things thought-provoking, I liked it.

This book came out when I was in college. I thought it would be a great way to learn more about the person I was dating. (I was wrong.) Fifteen years later I re-bought it and decided that it's still worthwhile, but only to the degree that you are willing to be patient with it. IMHO there's probably only 20 or 30 questions that are intriguing, the rest are classroom filler.

Some of the questions are silly and some are downright depressing, as they reveal human selfishness. But if you have ever been bitten by the philosophy, or more specifically, the ethics bug, then this is a great little book to have. Also, it's better than the more recent knock-off "The Book of Fabulous Questions" - by Frohart.

This is a fun little book. Some of the questions are silly, but that's part of the entertainment. Don't look to this book as a remedy to your social/psychological/spiritual (or whatever) problems...its just a fun little book.

If you have problems with topics for conversation keep this gem handy. There are some questions that are sure to peak everyone's talking bug. Some light hearted topics that will keep you talking for plenty of hours. Serious, humorous, thought provoking

While a simple concept, this book is surprisingly fun and amazingly useful in a variety of circumstances.

I first started carrying it as a way to start conversations in parties. A naturally shy person, I dreaded being in a social situation and not having anything to talk to people about. If things got awkward, I could simply pull out the book and say, "Pick a number between 1 and 122."

I've found it useful in business as a way to get to know my co-workers or to inspire brainstorming during meetings. The questions may not have anything to do with the topic at hand, but considering the answers and discussing them gets the creative juices flowing.

In playing traditional role-playing games, I've found the book useful in developing characters. I ask my players to pick a number and answer the question in character. It's a great way to build depth into the characters and I imagine it would be useful for actors and directors of stage or screen as well.

All in all, you won't regret having this book as a resource and even if you never share the questions with others, thinking about your own answers will let you explore the fullness of your self.