rationalskepticism.org

shh wrote:
An intro will probably tell you enough to at least let you know what they were talking about, and probably a bastardized version of what they said, but enough to let you know if you're interested enough to bother.

I've come to mistrust this method because it has happened more than once that what I "knew" about an author from introductory material didn't quite fit with what I found when I started to actually read him ... but this may be more an issue with the quality of said introductions. They mostly came from lecturers in literature anyway, and my philosopher colleagues at the Uni were known to go into fits over this As a result, I'm very unsure about anything I've learned this way. I'll give Sophie's world a try and see how it goes.

Birth of Tragedy is a good intro I think, it's quite focussed, it's his first book, and it deals with stuff that you probably won't need to do a tonne of research on, especially since he later criticised it as a kind of naive attempt at philosophy.
Still a great book though.

Thanks for the tip! This rings a bell. The Birth of Tragedy from the Spirit of Music, is that it? The Apollonian and the Dionysian? I've read about it, may have even started reading it, but I don't remember much. I think I even still have it on my bookshelves somewhere. And what about the next step, if I wish to read something a bit less "naive"?