Classical Philosophy: A History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps, Vol. 1, by Peter Adamson, Oxford University Press, 2014.You have to be to be intrigued by an author who says, “I wrote this book because my back hurt.” I won’t go into his explanation of that statement, so you’ll have to read it for yourself. Adamson is a philosophy professor, but if you think that makes him dull and dry, think again. He is quite amusing, and he does his dead level best to make the subject of ancient philosophy fresh, funny, and relevant. I think he has succeeded, for at least every section in the book except the one about Aristotle. I’m afraid I didn’t finish those chapters. But I made it through page 295 out of 316, so that’s not too bad. And the rest of the book is well worth your time. It’s fascinating to realize that people have been pondering the same questions since there were people around to ponder: Why are we here? What make an act good or bad? How do we govern ourselves? What’s the universe made of? I must say that my fascination with Plato was only intensified by reading the section about him. (You may remember that the first post on this blog included a book about Plato; Gideon read that and decided he needed to take a look at the real thing and so checked out a collection of the Dialogues; I haven’t quite gotten that far. There’s also a great section in A Shot of Faith to the Head, also reviewed in this blog, about Plato.) You probably wouldn’t sit down and devour this book, but it was something I enjoyed reading a chapter or two at a time. The print is awfully small, which I found to be a problem at times when I was trying to read it under less-than-optimal lighting conditions. Hmmm. That didn’t used to bother me! Anyway, do take a look.