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Nietzsche: Where To Begin?

I will provide a reading list of what I believe to be the best course to follow for someone who has a fairly decent background in philosophy, yet has never truly engaged with Nietzsche's books.

My list, of course, is bound to be polemical. If you disagree with any of my suggestions, please write a comment so we can offer different perspectives to future readers.

What NOT to Do

I strongly advise against starting with The Birth of Tragedy. The following advice often appears: “Read Nietzsche in chronological order so you can understand the development of his thought”. This is terrible advice. Terrible. The Birth of Tragedy is not representative of Nietzsche’s style and thought: his early prose was convoluted and sometimes betrayed his insights (Nietzsche himself admitted this). Even though we could argue that the kernel of many of his ideas could be found here, this is a curiosity for the expert, not the beginner. I cannot imagine how many people were permanently dissuaded from reading Nietzsche because they started with this book. In fact, The Birth of Tragedy was the first book by Nietzsche that I read and it was a terribly underwhelming experience. I only understood its value years later.
Please do not start with Thus Spoke Zarathustra. I cannot stress this enough. You might be fascinated at first (I know I was), but there is no way you will understand it without having read and deeply pondered on the majority Nietzsche's books. You. Will. Not. Understand. It. Reading Zarathustra for the first time is an enthralling aesthetic experience. I welcome everyone to do it. But we must also bear in mind that Zarathustra is a literary expression of a very dense and complex body of philosophical ideas and, therefore, Zarathustra is not the best place to start reading Nietzsche.
Try to avoid The Will to Power at first. This is a collection of notes from the 1880's notebooks, a collection published posthumously on the behest of Nietzsche’s sister and under the supervision of his best friend, Peter Köselitz. The Will to Power is a collection of drafts and notes of varying quality: some are brilliant, some are interesting, and some are simply experiments. In all cases, we find key insights into Nietzsche’s creative process. The Will to Power is fascinating because it offers an insider's scoop into Nietzsche’s creative process, but it would be an ill-advised place to start.
I have not included Nietzsche’s peculiar and brilliant autobiography Ecce Homo. This is a book whose meaning will be enriched as we get more and more into Nietzsche. It could serve both as a guideline and as a culmination. On the one hand, I would not recommend Ecce Homo as an introduction because readers can be — understandably — discouraged by what at first might seem like delusions of grandeur. On the other hand, Ecce Homo has a section where Nietzsche summarises and makes illuminating comments on all his published books. These comments, albeit brief, are priceless for new readers.

Which books should I get?

I suggest getting Walter Kaufmann's translations. If you buy The Portable Nietzsche and The Basic Writings of Nietzsche, you will own most of the books on my suggested reading list.

The Portable Nietzsche includes:

Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Twilight of the Idols
The Antichrist
Nietzsche contra Wagner

The Basic Writings of Nietzsche includes:

The Birth of Tragedy
Beyond Good and Evil
On the Genealogy of Morals
The Case of Wagner
Ecce Homo

The most important books missing from this list are Human, All-Too Human, Daybreak and The Gay Science.

Walter Kaufmann translated The Gay Science, yet he did not translate Human, All-Too Human and Daybreak. For these two, I would recommend the Cambridge editions, edited and translated by R.J. Hollingdale.

These three volumes — The Portable Nietzsche, The Basic Writings of Nietzsche and The Gay Science — are the perfect starter pack.

Walter Kaufmann's translations have admirers and detractors. I believe their virtues far outweigh their shortcomings. What I like the most about them is their consistency when translating certain words, which can be essential for someone who is reading Nietzsche for the first time.

Original article: https://www.reddit.com/r/Nietzsche/comments/kojfw6/my_take_on_nietzsche_where_to_begin/

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1 - Read Twilight of the Idols

Twilight is the best primer for Nietzsche’s thought. In fact, it was originally written with that intention. Following a suggestion from his publisher, Nietzsche gave himself the challenge of writing an introduction that would lure in readers who were not acquainted with his philosophy or might be confused by his more extensive and more intricate books. In Twilight, we find a very comprehensible and comprehensive compendium of many — many! — of Nietzsche's signature ideas. Moreover, Twilight contains a perfect sample of his aphoristic style.

Twilight of the Idols was anthologised in The Portable Nietzsche, edited and translated by Walter Kaufmann.

2 - Read The Antichrist

Similar to Twilight, The Antichrist is relatively brief and a great read. Here we find Nietzsche as a polemicist at his best. This books is his most acerbic and sardonic critique of Christianity, which is perhaps what seduces many new readers. Your opinion on this book should be a very telling litmus test or prediction of your disposition towards the rest of Nietzsche’s works.

Furthermore, The Antichrist was originally written as the opening book of a four-book project that would contain Nietzsche's summa philosphica: the compendium and culmination of his entire philosophy. The working title of this book was The Will to Power: the Revaluation of All Values. (Nietzsche, nonetheless, never finished this project. The book that was eventually published under the title of The Will to Power is not the book Nietzsche had originally planned but rather a collection of his notebooks from the 1880's.) The Antichrist, therefore, was intended as the introduction to a four-volume magnum opus that Nietzsche never wrote. Since it was intended as an introduction, The Antichrist condenses and connects ideas from all of Nietzsche's previous books.

The Antichrist was also anthologised in The Portable Nietzsche. If you dislike reading pdf's or epub's, I would suggest buying this volume.

I have chosen Twilight of the Idols and The Antichrist as the best primers for new readers because these two books are a perfect sample: they discuss most of Nietzsche trademark ideas, and both can be read in three afternoons or a week. In terms of length, they are manageable. Compared to the rest of Nietzsche's books, these two are short. This does not mean, however, that they are simple.

If you enjoyed and felt comfortable with Twilight of the Idols and The Antichrist, you are ready to explore the heart of Nietzsche’s oeuvre: his three aphoristic masterpieces.

3 - Read Human, All-Too Human

4 - Read Daybreak

5 - Read The Gay Science

This is perhaps the most contentious suggestion on my reading list. I will defend it. Beyond Good and Evil and Thus Spoke Zarathustra are, by far, Nietzsche’s most famous books. However, THEY ARE NOT THE BEST PLACE TO BEGIN. Although these two classics are the books that first enamoured many, I believe it is difficult to truly understand Beyond Good and Evil without having read Daybreak, and it is impossible to truly understand Zarathustra without having read most — if not all! — of Nietzsche’s works.

Unfortunately, it is evident when new readers post here and have only read Zarathustra without having read anything else. And I mean evident as in people say and ask all kinds of crazy and silly things. Zarathustra's symbolic and literary complexity can serve as Rorschach inkblot where people can project all kinds of demented ideas. Please do not be that person.

The beauty of Human, All-Too Human, Daybreak and The Gay Science is that they can be browsed and read irresponsibly, like a collection of poems. This is most definitely not the case with Beyond Good and Evil, Zarathustra and, especially, On the Genealogy of Morals. Even though Human, All-Too Human, Daybreak and The Gay Science are quite long, you do not have to read all the aphorisms to get the gist. Again, the source of all of Nietzsche’s later ideas is to be found here, so your understanding of him will depend on how deeply you have delved into these three books.

There are many who recommend Human, All-Too Human as the best place to start. I agree with them, in part, because the first 110 aphorism from Human, All-Too Human contain the foundations of Nietzsche's entire philosophical project, most times explained in the clearest way possible. If Twilight of the Idols feels too dense, perhaps you can try this: read the first 110 aphorisms from Human, All-Too Human and the first 110 aphorisms from Daybreak. There are plenty of misconceptions about Nietzsche that are easily dispelled by reading these two books. His later books — especially as Beyond Good and Evil and On the Genealogy of Morals — presuppose many ideas that were first developed in Human, All-Too Human and Daybreak.

On the other hand, Human, All-Too Human is also Nietzsche's longest book. Book I has 638 aphorisms; Book II 'Assorted Opinions and Maxims' has 408 aphorisms and 'The Wanderer and His Shadow' has 350 aphorisms. A book of 500 or more pages can be very daunting for a newcomer.

Finally, after having read Human, All-Too Human, Daybreak and The Gay Science (or at least one of them), you will be ready to embark on the odyssey of reading...

6 - Read Beyond Good and Evil

7 - Read On the Genealogy of Morals

8 - Read Thus Spoke Zarathustra