I still thought it was too long. You're right about that.

Just back from Oregon, where I got to go to Powell's, all to briefly. Oh bliss! As a result, the TSAs destroyed my suitcase. It turns out you aren't supposed to pack books (ostensibly because they show up as dark blobs on X-ray, but really because books are evil) so not only did they open my suitcase and throw everything back in so that the books and other gifts got damaged, but they managed to bend the steel frame of my Samsonite.

OK, wasn't supposed to be a rant.

We were just talking about The Handmaid's Tale last night - my friend Ellen said that after she read it, she refused to check a box for Sex M/F on any form, since that was how they found you. But mostly we were talking about how a lot of the predictions have started coming to pass. Also, I'd just read Black House, the sequel to The Talisman by King and Straub and noticed that part of the "other" world was called Gilead, which was the world of The Handmaid's Tale.

Matt! My brother in love for The King in Yellow ! I'll have to check out A Rebours. But not that song; I've got Peter Wolf version somewhere, but not as effective. Although, since the Hungarians tend to have the highest suicide rate of any country, a few dozen in a year doesn't seem that odd.

I read Michael Marshall's The Straw Men on Saturday. It's a combination serial-killer/conspiracy novel. Quite well done, I thought: the writing moved along, and it kept me going, the story moved fast enough that I didn't stop to think how unlikely it all was until it was over.

And Marshall understands how computers work, which is nice. That said, the premise is really kinda silly. But you don't think about that until it's done.

Has anybody read Sophie's World, and have any opinions on it? I picked it up today because it looked intriguing. I'm trying to decide where to shoehorn it into my TBR pile. If it's really good, I'll move it toward the top.

I have not read it, but a friend of mine who read it in high school highly recommended it. I've been wanting to read it for a long time.

Okay, thanks! Top o' the pile it is. Top-ish, anyway.

I read Sophie's World on vacation some years ago. It made me feel stupid, because I know nothing about philisophy. You do realize that it's an intro-to-philosophy text dressed up in a story, right?

Yes, I got that. I'll probably feel pretty stupid about halfway through and abandon it. But I've learned more history through reading historical fiction...maybe I can learn some philosophy through a similar fashion.

I loved loved loved Sophie's World, although I have only read it once. I think a better introduction to Gaarder's work and his style might be The Solitaire Mystery,. which I have read several times. (It's a good comfort book.)

I think the end of SW gets a little too... odd, and it seems to distract from the rest of the book. SM is more consistent all the way through. Both strike me almost as children's books, very Alice in Wonderland -ish. Now with added philosophy! (Disclaimer: I read SW right after taking an Intro to Philosophy course, that may be why I found it interesting. I read SM shortly after reading SW.)

Gaarder really does introduce the philosophy in a very basic way in both books. In SW, Sophie is sort of taking a beginner's correspondence course, and in SM, a father is teaching his child on a trip. The philopshy is really presented more as separate from the story but is still integral to each story's resolution.

I think both are great books, and I hope you find the story interesting enough to not abandon it because of the philosophy.

Beverly, I really liked Sophie's World, though I thought The Solitaire Mystery was better at integrating the philosophy into the story. My brother and I both read it [edit: SW] several years ago while on a family vacation in Italy. My brother doesn't really like to read very much (evidence that he's really a changeling baby, I'm sure), and he was only 11 or 12 at the time, but for some reason he adored Sophie's World and raced through it. I'd never seen him take such an avid interest in a book before, and it was pretty cool to see. So that's high praise!