Kickstarter

Look inside Curious: Sneak Peek |  Gallery.

Please listen to the 'Got Style?' interview to really understand Curious:

A Curious website.

Curious is a unique book and a social experiment.

The book is hard to define. It's peculiar, yet familiar. Strange and beautiful. Curious is food for thought. It's poetry, imagery, design, and provocative ideas. The hope is that it will help people to see the world a little differently.

The social experiment will unleash copies of the book into the world in unusual ways to see what happens. The books will be tracked, journaled by those who find it and chronicled by me. It's going to be fun and interesting!

...

A definition of the word Curious is: Arousing interest because of novelty or strangeness.

And so, the book Curious seeks to arouse interest with its novelty and/or strangeness.

Curious is an experience and a social experiment.

You bring your own interpretation to each page. It's a process of discovery. Words, images and design provide an environment of exploration. Things hidden and things revealed. 

The goal is to print and distribute 200 (or more) printed, 100 page Curious books. And set them free into the world to be discovered. Then journal their travels and the readers' reactions.

Imagine a person discovering Curious by chance at a coffee shop, newspaper box or train station; and wondering what in the world it is. What does this mean? Where did this come from? This is peculiar. 

You have the opportunity to be an essential part of the experiment.

In addition to me, you can help to distribute the book in creative and interesting ways; dropping them off at cafes, bars, book clubs, on a park bench. I will post ideas on the website and I will welcome new ideas. You can also pass the books on to a friend, a stranger, and/or other.

Each book will have a label with an ID code and a message requesting that the reader pass it along in a similar way after they read it. When another reader finds your book, they can enter the ID on a website and report that they "caught" it. They can post journal entries about how/where they found it and what they think. Journal entries will allow you (us) to see the location of your book(s), who's reading it now, and follow where it goes next. Some books may stay in one region, but there's a real possibility that Curious could travel far and wide! 

Once the project is up and running, I will start the process of chronicling the experiment and I will send updates as the books roam. 

I will provide all backers with Curious QR Cards (which can be seen on the website). These peculiar cards lead unsuspecting people to this project site via cellphone scan. They are part of the social experiment. They'll also make for great ice breakers, conversation starters and miscellaneous tomfoolery of your own making.

For more information about the book, the experiment and rewards, please visit the www.curious-book.com evolving website from time to time. (The website is currently under construction and is slated for launch on Saturday, June 2. Thanks for your patience!)

Supporting the Curious project comes with excellent rewards: printed limited edition books, one-of-a-kind handmade versions, copies sent to celebrities, direct participation in the project and a chance to have some real fun. Please see the rewards packages for more information.

The Budget:  Video for Kickstarter; Printing 200 (or more) books; writing, editing, designing and production; Creation and maintenance of the website: managing and conducting the social experiment; Design & printing for Curious QR Cards, wallpaper & Curious Bookmarkers, postage, handling & packaging:  Total $4,950.  

As a kickstarter project, if we don't reach our goal, the project will not happen, and that wouldn't be any fun.

So, please support Curious.

Thank you! And thank you to Kickstarter for making this possible.

Curious.
You can't quite put your finger on it, but you can get your hands on it.

…

A Curious Story

Cristina and Michael met for coffee. When they sat down at their table, they found a curious book waiting for them. There was a note on it that said, “This book found you”. The book was called Curious works by David H. Grace.

Curious was as strange as it was beautiful. It suggested things, asked things, whispered things, showed things and screamed things. 

They spent the rest of the day and most of the evening exploring Curious and talking about it at length. Although they were experiencing the same pages, they each interpreted them differently. It was the most interesting conversation that they had ever had with each other.

Cristina couldn't quite put her finger on it, but something struck her about page 7. An old memory maybe, a long lost friend?

On the inside front cover they noticed a sticker describing how the book was traveling the world, and how they can track where it's been by entering the ID code on a website. Interesting.

In the back of the book, a lot of people had written all kinds of things. Someone had written, “Me & Cristina, 1978 – p.7. SWF 12/12”. That was peculiar.

They tracked the book online and saw that it had traveled all over America; Philadelphia, New York, Virginia, New England, Colorado, California, Texas. There were many journal entries about Curious. How people happened to find it, what their experience with the book was like, where and how they set it free. It was very interesting. After reading other reader's thoughts on the book, they re-visited Curious and saw it in a different light. Many different lights, actually.

One of the journal entries caught Cristina's eye. It said, “I found this crazy book in Colorado Springs, totally out of the blue. It was beautiful and strange. It really made me think. This sounds weird, but page 7 really reminds me of a long lost friend – Cristina. I can't quite put my finger on it. I wonder what ever happened to her. She would love this. Any way, after I set it free I had to get one of my own!”

How could this be possible? This could be her long lost friend, Sara. Cristina had stumbled upon an astonishing stroke of serendipity. 

In the back of the book, Cristina wrote, “SWF & CR, page 7 – 1978. Lost & found. 3/13”. She also posted a journal entry on the website.

They looked at each other, and smiled wide, as they set Curious back into the wild in a free newspaper box, while on a road trip. It had a note on it that said, “This book found you.”

Seven minutes later, Paul opened the newspaper box and found a most peculiar book.

Sara checked the online journals and found a curious post.

Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, Heather Locklear opened a large, peculiar package with a curious book inside...