i only read this book for my english AP class.... tina alexander is my fellow classmate.... our teacher required the book as our summer reading.... at first i dreaded reading it..... though i tend to like philosophy, i tend to not like it too.... only because it tends to conflict a lot with my own phiilosophies.... i had read Jostein Gaarder's Sophie's World and i found it to be very much confusing.... however compared to that book life of pi wasa simple, though monotonous, read.... i admit, i did not quite like the book in the beginning and i find it hard to accept that one person can believe in 330 million gods and add to that mary, jesus, and the twelve saints PLUS allah.... imagine the number of rituals and prayers adn languages and conflicting teachings.... but i shall not continue because that is foreign ground to me.... i would actually like to bring up the philosophy of life that is soo apparent in the book.... from beginning to end he only talks of life and its different faces...... which brings me to the algae island...... does anyone else think that it has a deeper meaning than that of mental fascination and hallucination???? share your ideas with me, please... i'd really like to know what u think....