Sophie's World (original 1991; edition 2007)

I really enjoyed this book. It was a slow read as much contemplating was required along the way. Unfortunately the ending wasn't quite as interesting as the rest of the book. ( )

This book is beautiful. I can't explain to you in so many words what is beautiful about it; you either get it, or you don't. This is definitely one of my favourite things I have ever read. ( )

I could recommend this to people who like Philosophy, but then, Philosophy was once my favorite subject, and I didn't like this book. In fact, thanks to this book, I no longer had any interest in philosophy, or philosophizing.

I started out expecting to like it. After all, it's about philosophy! And I do love mulling over the purpose of life, and being awed at how we exist and think at all. I didn't know this book is going to be a long-winded discussion of different types of philosophies and the people who pioneered this theory and that. It certainly was interesting, to an extent. In fact, the beginning was really good, and then towards the middle, it went downhill. I must confess, I was down to the last 50 or so pages, and I couldn't bring myself to finish it. I read that in the ending, Sophie realizes she's a fictional character, so I couldn't have changed my opinion of the book based on its ending.

In the end, all I grasped was, these were men who argued that their theory was more plausible than that other theory, blah blah blah. It's all pretty muddled, actually, since I read this a long time ago, and also I no longer cared about these philosophers and their theories.

Who cares what you think life is, or what it's about? Whether you support Nietzche, or Hobbes, or Machiavelli? It's how you live your life that matters. Is there any merit in pondering more, of making even more theories? Surely the ancient philosophers and their philosophies were enough.

I do still like to ponder about Existence, but to actually study Philosophy...*shudders* Too much thinking and too little action. In a way, Stephen Hawking was right to say that philosophy is obsolete. Isn't it time to stop formulating theories and actually do something?

( )

I had had my share of ancient and modern philosophers, I thought. Some parts of the book were more or less familiar to me. BUT, when the ancient philosophy was left behind, I also had to read and re-read passages, for they were not clear to me.
I liked the book, for its originality: a philosopher explaining things to a young girl, very inventive. It is not a simple read though. I'll give it a try again soon, this is the kind of book I can read multiple times and still find new things in it. ( )

Sophie’s World is written as a novel but really dives into the history of Philosophy. The book is about a teenage girl, Sophie who keeps getting letters on philosophy in the mail. These letters spark Sophie’s curiosity and provide questions and answers to questions on life. Jostein Gaarder intended the book to be both a novel and a basic guide to philosophy, which made the book very easy to read.

Sophie started her studies with the natural philosophers, before moving onto the popular Greeks (Socrates, Plato and Aristotle) all the way up to Darwin, Freud, and Sartre. Though covering most of the major philosophers Gaarder didn’t shy away from the lesser known or even the controversial ones (Marx). He did a good job of showing the positive and negative points of each philosopher, while trying not to tell the reader which ones are better than others.

The novel aspect of this book is bizarre and intriguing, with little examples of philosophical theories along the way. It did a great job of breaking up the history lesson to bring the reader back to the feeling of reading a novel. I really enjoyed this book and look forward to reading it again. Next time I plan to read it slower and spend time exploring these philosophers in greater detail. Well worth the read and a good introductory point into the world of philosophy. ( )