Nu

I tried to read through some of Thus Spake Zarathustra. The parts I understood were very interesting, unfortunatly I didn't understand much.

I went to the back of the book to check out the Editor's Notes and found out that Thus Spake Zarathustra is not recommended for a reader unfamiliar with Nietzsche's life or works.

Which book should I start with?

LoopHooligan

Try 'Beyond Good and Evil' it made alot more sense to me than Zarathustra.

Good luck

Ierrellus

Nu,

I started Nietzche with Zarathustra. For me it was a fun read. So I believe the editor's advice amounts to expulsion of excrement from some bovine orifice of the fundament.

Ierrellus
PAX

Darwin's Finch

I would suggest reading Human, All Too Human, Daybreak and The Gay Science before tackling TSZ. Zarathustra is a peculiar book and represents a sort of breakthrough for Nietzsche, who -- in the other books mentioned -- had pretty much pushed nihilism as far as possible. Without some familiarity with what came before, it is difficult to understand why N. regarded Zarathustra as such a pivotal and self-revealing work.

snatchbalance

Nu,

I'm currently reading BG&E. I think it is very accessable.

SB

pug846

Beyond Good and Evil and The Gay Science are pretty "easy" reads. I would definetely start there. I'm partial to the Kauffman translations because of the end notes, but some find them distracting.

Earl

I would suggest Nietzsche's shorter, very readable article, "On Truth and Lies in a Non-moral sense," which contains a number of "postmodern" themes and interesting formulations. Luckily, the article is online at

<a href="http://users.compaqnet.be/cn111132/nietzsche/on_truth_and_lies.htm" target="_blank">http://users.compaqnet.be/cn111132/nietzsche/on_truth_and_lies.htm</a>

David Bowden

I began with Beyond Good and Evil, and have enjoyed devouring chunks from Walter Kaufmann's The Viking Portable Nietzsche.

I haven't read it all the way through, but I recently skimmed Nietzsche: A Philosophical Biography by Rudiger Safranski, which I found very readible, as well as authoritative and comprehensive.

-David / wanderer

Caelestis Impius

Overall, the aphoristic-style works of Nietzsche are normally considered the easiest to read. I'd reccomend starting at the beginning with All Too Human and working your way towards Zara (antichrist and Ecce are sorta aphoristic too tho)

There's always Will to Power...

Also, i think the translations of Kaufmann are the best (or maybe i'm just biased)

Have fun

not a theist

It's not his most exciting work, but I would advise starting with The Birth of Tragedy. It's a bit more tightly reasoned than his later works (which completely fall apart by time he reaches Ecce Homo). In The Birth of Tragedy he lays the foundation of his Apollonian/Dionysian dualism which is implicit (and sometimes explicit) in his later work.