Is it best to read books in order?

[Philosopher JB]

I want to start reading Nietzsche's works and was wondering will it be easier to read them in order?

[RickLewis]

Do you mean in chronological order or in order of ascending quality?

[The Voice of Time]

If it were talk about quality, RickLewis, I would've said "descending" order, as ascending would just give you a bad start. Do the snacky things first, and when you're fully into it, finish off with the less good ones.

Not that I've read any works of Nietzsche, only read quotes here and there or perhaps a page or somebody talking about Nietzsche (as when I read Arne Næss' "Philosophy's History")

[RickLewis]

I haven't read all of them myself. One which I have read and which is certainly VERY readable, is Thus Spoke Zarathustra. It is written in an astonishing pseudo-Biblical style. It's great! Philosopher JB could do a lot worse than starting with that one.

[John K]

I haven't read all of them myself. One which I have read and which is certainly VERY readable, is Thus Spoke Zarathustra. It is written in an astonishing pseudo-Biblical style. It's great! Philosopher JB could do a lot worse than starting with that one.

With Strauss blasting through the hi-fi...

[Impenitent]

for Nietzsche, you really should start at the beginning...

the Birth of Tragedy sets up his Apollonian/Dionysian dichotomy that you will find in his later writings...

-Imp

addendum: Nietzsche is also notorious for arguing against most all philosophers before him, so a thorough understanding of them (or at least the arguments against which Nietzsche argues) is a good idea as well...

[John K]

for Nietzsche, you really should start at the beginning...

the Birth of Tragedy sets up his Apollonian/Dionysian dichotomy that you will find in his later writings...

-Imp

addendum: Nietzsche is also notorious for arguing against most all philosophers before him, so a thorough understanding of them (or at least the arguments against which Nietzsche argues) is a good idea as well...

Excellent choice.