Why are all horses the same? Plato's theory of ideas suggested that there must be a reality behind the perceptual world (our world). In this reality or the world of ideas, there were forms/ideas which provided the mold for everything in the perceptual world. Plato held that all horses were the same because they were copies of timeless form that was eternal and immutable. Of course, that was before Darwin came up with the theory of evolution which cast doubt on the claim that all species were immutable. Photo taken at Palace of Golden Horses.

If answers to life, the universe and everything are what you seek, you may find valuable insights in this cool book that had me preoccupied for the past week. No, it's not The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy (granted, it's cool and does give you the Answer to Life, the Universe and Everything); I'm talking about the less fancy-sounding Sophie's World, which I totally love.

Sophie's World may not pack a lot in its title, but it more than redeems itself in terms of content. Being "a novel about the history of philosophy", it provides a crash course on exactly that- the history of philosophy. Sounds dry, doesn't it? It's a feat that Jostein Gaarder, the maestro behind it all, manages to make what could have been a sleeping pill into a spectacular book that catches one's attention and imagination. Thanks to Gaarder's healthy doses of Matrix-esque thrills and excitement, I sailed through what is perhaps the most thought-provoking book I've read since Life of Pi.

Of the many meaningful short stories as told by one of the characters in the book, I would like to share the one about the dancing centipede. Despite having a hundred legs, the centipede was amazingly good at dancing. The tortoise, green with envy, decided to stop the centipede from dancing for good. So, he wrote the centipede a letter:

The tortoise got his way in the end; the centipede began to think about what exactly she did when she danced and was never able to dance again. I love the story because the same wretched thing happens to me when I worry myself with the technicalities of taking good photographs. I find that I get better photos when I shut off my conscious mind. Ditto when writing.

Sophie's World is not flawless; one notable let-down is that it lacks literary punch; the flow of language isn't exactly Booker Prize material. It's hardly Mr.Gaarder's fault though since the book was originally in Norwegian. That aside, this book warrants a second read. Amazing stuff.