Book: Sophie's World

Title: Sophie's World
Author: Jostein Gaarder

"He who cannot draw on three thousand years is living from hand to mouth." -- Goethe

With about three thousand years of thoughts and ideas crammed into a small 400-odd-paged book, Sophie's World is a definite 'Must-Read'. Jostein Gaarder, Norwegian novelist and philosophy teacher, has carefully crafted out an entire world of his own in this book. A story within a story, with much of his own thoughts and ideas left all over the book alongside those of great minds of the past. Gaarder carefully balances fact and fiction, cautious not to make the book seem too dry for readers, yet preserving all details that can satisfy the philosophical cravings of some.

The book brings you through time, into the minds of the Greeks, through the Middle Ages, Renaissance, Baroque periods, into Romanticism, and plenty more to come. Great insight into the thoughts of Descartes, Locke, Kant, Marx, Darwin and many many more. A great philosophical course embedded in the story of a little girl growing up in her world, with a rather warming ending. Overall, a surely superb book, only that you might need some time and energy to go through it. Not for those who are sated with living from hand to mouth.