A Sampler Of Life’s Big, Little Questions

“Just Curious” by Cullen Murphy (Houghton Mifflin, $21.95, 251 pages)

One of the best places to begin reading Cullen Murphy’s “Just Curious” is at the end.

Browsing the index you’ll come across such entries as “sandwiches, perils in mass production of” and “cats, number of innocent birds killed by.” Another is “English language, nine most-used words in.” And then there’s my personal favorite: “hedonic loss, compensation for life’s foregone pleasures.”

If you can look at the index of “Just Curious” and not feel the urge to turn to the essays, then you shouldn’t be reading a book anyway. Put it down and watch “Saved by the Bell.”