1. Skip the demonstrations – chances are you won't be able to follow or to find the logical flaws (if there are any), so might just as well roll with it. In fact you can probably skip a lot of the propositions too. No one (except some tortured philosophy students) really needs to read all 9000 types of affects broken down into basic components. That's like reading somebody's pseudocode for a very clunky algorithm, really.
2. I suspect English is not the best language to translate Latin into while trying to preserve sentence structure as much as possible. If you speak any languages with more flexible grammar, try reading those translations maybe. Or may be this is just as painful to read in Latin, I am not sure.
3. Writing up philosophical treatises as a series of proofs is very good for putting together a ready-made guidebook for programming human-like AI, but apparently very bad for PR. There's some pretty interesting stuff buried in all the confusion. No wonder Spinoza never got too popular.
4. To sum up the practical conclusions, in somewhat simpler terms: Understand yourself and your shit, and you will be able to keep your shit together somewhat better. Keeping your shit together feels good in itself, so do it for that, not just the benefits it produces.

I have never read another book that so strongly reminded me of why philosophy is fun and important

I oscillated between 1 and 2 stars for this, and I really wanted to give it the benefit of the doubt. After all, it is highly esteemed amongst classical philosophical works. I’m vaguely aware of why people have high opinions of Spinoza, but unfortunately I just couldn’t justify a higher rating for this. I found it dull and uninteresting, and the arguments are, in my opinion, absurd. There are cases where Spinoza actually, sincerely, supports his claim by saying “proof: this proposition is self-evident.” And at that point, I’m reminded how futile rationalism is. Even his better formulated arguments rely on very presumptuous and reductive notions of human nature and virtue that should have been done away with long before Spinoza. I do intend on coming back to this work eventually, but I don’t recommend it.

Onder de begeleiding van Henri Krop gelezen. Indrukwekkend en enerverend om te lezen, geheel tegen mijn verwachtingen in.

Submitted my MA thesis all of 10 minutes ago in which I wrote about Spinoza & Literature. I shan't properly update this review until marking comes back but rest assured I have many opinions about this wonderful little book

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Third read cover to cover wahoo :)

*Caillou voice* Each day I grow some more

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(Review after first read)
The pros and cons of peeking through the curtains:
Pro - At last you'll find out what's outside.
Con - At last you'll find out what's outside.

In Ethics, Spinoza constructs a comprehensive system of reality and reason with the foundation of joy as the most beneficial pursuit (and sadness as the least).

I'm incredibly impressed at Spinoza's cunningness(?) to write a book wherein anyone who reads it in its entirety will probably have a generally positive appraisal given an implicit proposition that runs through much of part 3 onwards "anyone who reads this book is likely very smart and full of the type of joy that is next to godliness".

Regardless of any intellectual ego stroking that may or may not be present in this book, Ethics is an incredibly well put together text that deserves all the endurance it's had and more.

I'd tried to read this book twice in the past but could never make it past 15 odd pages, even now I think part 1 is rather harder to read than 2-5 put together - but there is a distinct bliss that sticks around after grinding through the initial geometric writings of part 1.

There are so many moments in this text where it feels like numerous lightbulbs were going off in succession symbolising the revelations I felt upon comprehending the propositions and this is where the geometric style is integral in maintaining the cohesively sound analysis, it was like Spinoza was saying, "hey by the way, remember that weird proposition I said 40 pages ago? well, here's how that proves why we all feel and know by experience that we are eternal (P.S. You are God).".

There's a Jenny Holzer truism that goes "In a dream you saw a way to survive and you were full of joy." I've always felt that 'dream' could be swapped out for 'book' and it would be more relevant to my personal experience and Spinoza's Ethics has certainly found its place in this category.

A great read for any atheist or agnostic aspiring philosopher, or angry religious person. Spinoza is the only really logical philosopher I have ever read, which is both impressive and mind-numbingly depressing. He presents some great ideas in a very structured way, but expect quite a bit of trouble actually getting through the book. The appendix to part one is the best part, because it's readable and contains most of his major ideas.