The Story of Philosophy

Almost done with Durant's Story of Philosophy.  It's a lucid, if idiosyncratic, take on the history of philosophy from Plato to ~1920.  He covered some philosophers whom I know pretty well, which gives me confidence in his views on the others.  On the whole, it's a good intro to the philosophers he covers, and Durant is pretty forthright about what's his own opinion.

I think that he spends a lot of time on epistemic issues, considering how much he claims to dislike epistemology.  But my biggest complaint is probably with the structure of the book.  Durant dives deeply into 9 philosophers, while leaving the others at the edges, and some of them seem pretty important.  I'd quibble with his choice of, say, Spenser over Mill or Bentham, for example.  He also assumes, to some extent, that we know something of the philosophers whom he skimps on -- he contrasts a few of them to Hobbes, but never really covers Hobbes at all.

On the plus side, his discussions of Kant and Spinoza are incredibly good, and I can now see some of the attractions of Nietzsche's philosophy, though I still consider it pretty repellant.