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In my time I've read - and even managed to finish several books of philosophy, but apart from Karl Popper, have always found them hard going. Warburton's book (2011) is clear, reader-friendly and comprehensive, beginning with a few pages on Socrates and proceeding on through Roman, Christian, Empirical and Existential philosophers. No chapter is more than 3/4 pages and each little essay is a delight. I picked up my copy in Barnes & Noble in NYC a week ago and managed to read a little chapter between subway stops. I now know a bit about the Stoics, the Sceptics and the Christian philosophers, as well as Machiavelli and Nietzsche.

A good place to start if one is interested in learning philosophy is the book, 'The Story Of Philosophy' by Will Durant. The book is very readable and Durant's style of writing is almost poetic. The book was first published in 1926 and I believe it has never been out of print. It was not written for academics but rather for the everyday reader. The book devotes a chapter to each of the philosophers Durant chose to include beginning with the ancient Greeks and ending with people like Dewey and Santayana.

This book is by no means simplistic. It is meant to be read by adults. But that having been said it remains one of the most readable books on this subject. I have not read Nigel Warburton's book but it sounds inviting.

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