I'm about to read Plato's 'Republic' any tips?

I think it is quite a difficult read. I strongly advise reading it in chunks, and it’s the kind of tthing where you can’t ever just read it – you have to analyze it while reading it because it’s quite difficult to read, then analyze.

Don’t!! Hey hug!!

i hope you have a large attention span.

I can’t read anything over the length of the average fluther response, so way to go! Just take it a bit at a time. I once attempted Atlas Shrugged and went temporarily blind and developed a ringing in my ears. One bit at a time…

It’s a morsel at a time, yes. The writing is very dense.

@ubersiren I FINALLY read War and Peace once, after several false starts over 10 years!

Be eure to get the English translation, even then it was Greek to me.

@DutchCat : That’s amazing to me. I’m such a slow and distracted reader… how was it?

@ubersiren Oh…not in my top 10, that’s for sure. About half way through I started skipping the “War” parts and just reading “Peace” parts….it was about relationships and stuff..

so do you think i should read the introduction?

my teacher once told me to read the intro once you have finished the book so as not to spoil the plot as such but to give you more of an insight once you have read it…

I’m not sure that really applies with Plato though…?

I haven’t read War and Peace…and probably won’t…although you never know…

When I read the book, I found that reading reviews and discussions first helped a lot. In those days, I had to use the library, but you are lucky to have the entire internet at your fingertips. I suggest you start with wikipedia. Pay specific attention to the external links at the bottom of the page.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Republic_(Plato)

It’s a great foundation for later stuff, I hope you use it as a foundation for later study!

I agree with Yarnlady, its one that is best tackled with a study guide.

In sections. Like others have said, it’s helpful to have a guide. When I read it in philosophy class we had an annotated copy that had footnotes as well as a good introduction.