Welcome to Gaia! ::

im reading this book for my honors class and i just wanted to know what you thought of it when you read it or if you thought anything was really importent for me to understand . thanks

thanks sorry i didnt know if this was the right place
the author is Jostein Gaarder

This is one of the very few books that I never finished. I found the plot dull and the philosophy overly-simplistic and patronisingly explained.

I stopped reading when Sophie's mother decided that because her child was showing the first signs of intelligent thought she must be doing drugs. *pukes* seriously, who on earth reacts like that to their child saying something half-way clever? Bah! Moronic.
If you want to read a fiction book with an interesting plot, you can do better than one that's marred frequently by half-assed attempts to simplify 2000 years of western philosophy. If you want an introduction to western philosophy, you can do far better than one marred by half-assed attempts at a fictional plot. Bertrand Russell's History of Western Philosophy is slightly out-dated when it comes to first few chapters of Greek thought, but it still invaluable. And the Very Short Introdution series have a range of books on various aspects of philosophy- form ooks on single philosophers such as Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer, etc. to books about different branches of philosophy in general, such as Political Philosophy and Philosophy of science. If you seriously want to learn any philosophy, I'd recommend any of those. If you want something to throw on the fire to keep you warm at night, I recommend Sophie's World. -_-

Sorry I sound so embittered, but the idiocy of that book really got to me. razz Since you have to read it for a class, you have my condolences.

I LOVED that book. Yes, it oversimplifies philosophy but it kind of has to; it's written for tweens and teenagers and it's got to make the material interesting, relevant, and digestible. A lot of people hate Sophie's World and I think that's just a shame because it wasn't written for them. It was written for young people who know nothing of philosophy. It's designed to whet your appetite and it definitely did that for me.