Skip to main content

Sophie's World: A Novel About The History Of Philosophy

 


Sophie's World 
Published in 1991 with close to 507 pages
Written by: Jostein Gaarder
Rate: 10/10

My summary of Sophie's World: Sophie finds a letter addressed to her written by a mysterious self-proclaimed philosophy teacher named Alberto. Alberto begins to teach Sophie about philosophy through multiple letters, then they end up meeting face to face after a while. Through this philosophy course, Sophie learns not everything is what it seems to be. Together Alberto and Sophie make a discovery that leads them into a very different world. 

My opinion about Sophie's World: For my philosophy class my professor chose this book for our textbook and I was surprised that it wasn't in a textbook format. I was also surprised that it wasn't a textbook at all, it was a real fiction book. The class wasn't required to read the whole book, but because it was so interesting I had to finish it. I had a hard time reading it because I am such a slow reader, but I did and I am very pleased with Sophie's World. I liked Gaarder's writing style and the story being shared. There were only a few parts that felt like fluff compared to the rest of the story. I liked how Gaarder taught about philosophy while also having an actual story to go along with it.  

My favorite quotes from Sophie's World: 
We too are stardust.
When we look up to the sky we are trying to find the way back to ourselves... there can be billions of light-years between one galaxy and the next. But they all have the same origin. all stars and all planets belong to the same family.
Jostein Gaarder fun facts:

- Sophie's World was made into a movie in 1999.
- Has won three awards for his books: Norweigan Bookseller's Prize, Critics Price: Best Children's or Youth's Literature, and Brage Prize Honorary Award. 
- Written 20 books altogether.




Links: (These links are provided to help readers get more information about the subjects Jostein Gaarder discussed in Sophie's World.) 


Labels:

Popular Posts

The Shining

  The Shining Written by Stephen King About 560 pages (mass market paper back ed.) Originally published in 1977 Rate 4/5 This is the second book my Themes in Literature class is reading. So far we have only covered Carrie ( hover over this to check out my book review for Carrie ). Though this story has been referenced in the media many times throughout my existence, I tried to avoid it at all costs because I wasn't a fan of horror. Junior year of high school I took a film studies class. The "here's Johnny" scene was briefly mentioned and I was so scared. After reading the book, I now realize how exaggerated my feelings about this story were. I haven't watched the movie and maybe if I did then I would side with my younger self, but right now I feel a little embarrassed. The book wasn't that scary. What is The Shining about? Jack Torrance has recently been fired. One of his good friends gets him a job at The Outlook Hotel, his job is to look after the hotel for...
Read more

The Ballad of the Songbirds and Snakes

  The Ballad of the Songbirds and Snakes Written by Suzanne Collins About 517 pages Originally published in 2020 Rate: 5/5 Coriolanus Snow is the future president of Panem. The Ballad of the Songbirds and Snakes is not only his origin story, but the origin story of The Mockingjay. No, I am not talking about the birds that the government created in order to spy on the district people. I am talking about The Mockingjay whom we all know and love, Katniss Everdeen. Though Katniss Everdeen's full name isn't explicitly stated, she lives in this book. Her presence is known decades before she's born. "One way or another, their fates were irrevocably linked." (p. 25) Coriolanus, along side his classmates, are mentors for the 10th annual Hunger Games. He wants to win, to prove he is worthy, to bring pride to his family's name. However, when he gets assigned to the person voted least-likely-to-win, the girl from district 12, he feels as if he's been slapped in the f...
Read more

The Siren

The Siren written by: Kiera Cass Genre(s): fantasy, fiction, and young adult Rate: 9/10 About the book: Kahlen is a young girl who is saved by the ocean after the boat she was on was destroyed. She then becomes a siren and is bound to serve the ocean for 90 years. After she has served her time, she can be set free and live a normal life forgetting about the time she was a siren. However, there are rules to her sentence as a siren and if she breaks them more time will be added. When she finds the love of her life, she breaks a rule. The ocean favors her the most out of all the sirens, so will she get time added or will the ocean set her free? Why I liked the book: The conflict was very well centered through out the whole book, things were added to the conflict that were reasonable making the book more of a page turner. The rules were simple and easy to follow. It gave a different point of view on sirens that I liked a lot, made them seem more human. A great sisterly bond that mad...
Read more