Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Sophie's World ***** - Jostein Gaarder

This book is about a young girl who starts getting mysterious notes asking her questions. These notes lead her to start thinking about philosophy, and by reading the book, the reader is taken on a tour of philosophy since its beginning. It doesn''t sound fun, but is really easy to read (although it is a long book) and is a book you will have problems putting down.

It sets your brain working and as one of my students said "It makes my head hurt" as she was trying to get to grips with the ideas, which challenge you to look at yourself and the world in a different way.

Go find this book today and read it - you owe it to yourself.

2 comments:

nessie said...

This book is a great introduction to philosophy and I appreciate it as a BASE into the subject. But too many ppl have used it as the end all for them which is unfortunate. It is a little too simplistic to give each philosophy its due

GE said...

Agreed, Nessie.

For adults it should be a sampler - I studied loads of French philosophy myself, but I think for teenagers it is great for stimulating ideas and getting them to think about the bigger questions. It helps them to shift the focus from themselves to the bigger picture.