Where to Start Reading Nietzsche?
I was asked this question far too many times.
The problem is that the answer to it very much depends on personality and on interests of those who ask that question.
Those who study art or aesthetics will quickly point to Nietzsche’s first work ‘The Birth of Tragedy’, whilst those who are curious about poetry will reply ‘Thus Spoke Zarathustra’.
The first book by Nietzsche that I read was his ‘The Twilight of Idols’, which is his shortest, but also the most concise work. As Nietzsche said himself: ‘I write in a sentence what others try to say in a book’.
‘The Twilight of Idols’, however, is also not a great place to start, since it’s very abrupt and doesn’t delve deep into detail.
Until recently, I used to suggest Sue Prideaux’s brilliant biography of Nietzsche called ‘I am Dynamite’, which tells his life in extraordinarily vivid language and clear insight.
I thought that by encountering the life of Nietzsche and what he went through, one could later decide for themselves, which work of his to read.
But, would anyone, who is simply curious and not familiar with Nietzsche, read 300-page biography?
A perfect book that could introduce Nietzsche to a curious reader would have three elements: first, it would give a…
