Having very little exposure to Philosophy (in a learning/class setting), I first found the reading to be incredibly frustrating. "How will I keep these people straight?" "Does he really expect me to remember these dates of when these people were born and/or died?" "How in the world do you pronounce THAT name?" But the more I read, the easier (dare I say that?) it gets to sort through it all.
I must say, in defense of some of the rather odd philosophical thoughts of early on, that most of those views are really not quite so unbelievable IF you take into account the knowledge base AT THAT TIME. We, in this day and age, know that some theories are obviously not how it is. But at the time I can see how they could logically come to those conclusions. Though most people would never have been brave enough (or stupid enough - whatever the case may be) to have admitted that is what they thought. LOL