Ancient Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction by Annas, Julia

If you buy this hoping for a quick and easy intro to the names, lives and thoughts of early Greek philosophers, you’re going to feel let down. The author seems to think that she’s got more important things in mind than organizing and running the essential facts by you. She wants you to wonder about the usual tedious gender/power/class “issues,” how perceptions of the Greeks have changed over time, what it all does or doesn’t mean to us, and much else I could have lived without. And then she subjects you to pages of “Now, class, what do you think?”-style discussions. Questions for author: how is a reader supposed to have deep or searching thoughts about a field before knowing anything about that field? And: isn’t this book meant to be an introduction? By the way, the teacher’s own deep and searching thoughts didn’t impress. All in all, like a day spent at a bad progressive school.
There are probably lots of not-bad intros to the field out there. Maybe other reviewers can suggest a few. I’ve found intro-to-philosophy books by Bryan Magee and Paul Strathern helpful and well-written. There’s always the encyclopedia, as well as a couple of free online dictionaries of philosophy.By the way, beware this whole series of Oxford “Short introductions” unless you have eyes as sharp as an eagle’s. Someone gave the designer entirely too much leeway. The books look attractive but are almost unreadable — the print is dinky (as in footnote-size)and entirely sans serifs. I could manage only five pages at a time before my middle-aged eyes gave out.