an ongoing project to compress the greatest books of western philosophy to a tenth or so of their original size to allow for a reading of the whole as a single narrative, as “the story of western thought.” how are these different from cliffs notes or the like? well…“what is different here is that these are neither the opinion of one person nor mere extracts. instead, each has begun with a very wide analysis of quotations, citations and, especially, past examination papers, to establish which passages, which phrases, which lines, which words and which ideas, are generally considered the most important. Those essential parts have, as far as is reasonable, been left complete and untouched in the authors’ or translators’ original words. It is just the stuff between which has been squashed up, except when it is really interesting- like st augustine’s mother’s alcoholism, hobbes on angels, or adam smith on why irish prostitutes are so very beautiful.” admirable project i think, and good reading for the autodidact in all of us here.