Jostein Gaarder's Sophie's World

Sophie's World was published in 1991 and became a gigantic success. It is one of the most successful Norwegean books ever published. The movie that followed on its heels, featured an unusual for Norway hollywood-size budget, and tanked rather spectacularly, though, perhaps, unsurprisingly. This book is a primer in philosophy, it intermingles chapters on greek philosophers, sparsely bookmarked, with interaction of a fourteen year old girl, Sophie, and her philosophy teacher. Its spartan style does not really lend itself to anything visual, but its philosophic quirk is easy to swallow, and is has a rather nifty if slightly cliff notes quality to it.

The book has a simple plot about a little girl and her teacher, written for the benefit of young adults. The teacher instructs Sophie in philosophy until it comes a point that, through study of philosophy and reality, they realize that their reality is not quite what it appears to be. In something of an Alice in Wonderland cliche (Lewis Carrol's characters are mentioned here on numerous occasions), it turns out that they are all characters in a book written by yet another character of the book, who himself doesn't seem aware that he is in the same predicament that he's placed his own characters in.

It is to the benefit of this book that it is unpretentious, and while the philosophy parts of it are so much less bland then the ones describing life of a fourteen year old norwegean girl, the concoction goes down smoothly. I admit that after several attempts made during my teenage years to read Bertrand Russel, I find this book would have been an ideal substitute, a perfect, and only mildly biased introduction to philosophy. And while it is a little late for me now, after reading this book I have discovered that I would really like to read more Kant and Sartre. Perhaps this book would jog your memory too, so consider it an extended philosophy book catalogue with vingettes.