Reading Materials, Yes My Precioussssss ....

i have been absent for many reasons, my kittens. i acquired myself a boyfriend within the last few weeks, but another equally significant factor in my descent into blogging has-been-ery is that i have been reading. after plowing through the Fascism: A Very Short Introduction, i dived into Sophie's World and hardly came up for air. it was that good. there's nothing more delicious than a good book, and Sophie's World is a gourmet meal. it has all the characteristics of a quality reading experience -- it's entertaining, educational and enlightening.

it's hard for me to pinpoint the moment in my own life where my education became a matter of putting my nose to the grindstone. there was a time when i reacted to new ideas and new knowledge as if they were fat, juicy pastries. this book made me feel like that again. from the moment that Sophie, just shy of her fifteenth birthday, first encounters a mysterious letter in her mailbox asking her who she is, i was hooked. intertwined with her philosophy correspondence course with the mysterious Alberto is another mystery -- Sophie begins receiving postcards for a girl she has never met.

my only regret is that i didn't know about this book when it was first published in English. it would have been ideal reading when i was an adolescent, especially because my fifteenth birthday was in 1990 just like Sophie's. it would have made my early tortured attempts to understand literary theory easier. it definitely gave me a good framework to enjoy the selections i've been reading from the Very Short Introduction series.

Sophie's World will be one of the books that i will read and re-read over the coming years. it will be the kind of book i give as a gift to bright young readers. since there are no children in my life who are old enough to read it, i contented myself by buying copies for my two older siblings and my father as belated birthday gifts.