Sophie's World

Title: Sophie's World

Author: Jostein Gaarder

Pages: 19 discs

Genre: Fiction, Philosophy

Grade: B+

Synopsis: This book is a philosophy textbook disguised as a novel about a Swedish girl, Sophie.  Luckily, I knew that when I started this book or I would have found this book to be very strange.  Sophie is a young teenager who comes home to school one day and find a couple of notes with the questions: "Who are you?" and "Where does the world come from?" The anonymous note-sender begins sending pages and pages about the history of philosophy and is essentially running a correspondence philosophy course for Sophie.  As the course progresses, Sophie begins to receive birthday cards for another girl, Hilde.  Sophie works hard to unravel the mystery and must use the things that she is learning from philosophy to understand the mystery.

My Review:  There's no question that this book is strange, but I was surprised the I enjoyed it as much as I did when the end rolled around.  I'm no philosopher, but I think that I understand more of what philosophy is and what philosophers are trying to address.  The course, I mean book, covers everything from Plato and Aristotle to Camus, Kant and Nietzsche.  I especially enjoyed the descriptions of Philosophy during the time of Christ and in the modern day.