Nietzsche and the Political Book

Great introduction to this crucial thinker, and quite possibly the only good introduction to Heidegger for the uninitiated. The author does a great job of explaining Heidegger's relevance in the general philosophical tradition (i.e. his attack on Cartesian metaphysics) but at the same time, he also explores the deeply relevant and vital issues that made him the most important philosopher of the 20th century ; questions of authenticity, of man's relationship to time and death, of our relationship to others. All of these questions are looked at in a completely new way by Heidegger, which makes a precursor to the existentialists who would later appropriate and adopt his ideas.
Heidegger can be thought of as a cross between Nietzsche and Aristotle ; he takes from the latter a careful and detailed philosophical construction, and from the former, a deeply-held concern for the future of a humanity struggling in a nihilistic epoch. To engage with Heidegger, the interested party would have to go through his magnum opus, Being and Time, but this is well nigh impossible for Heidegger expects familiarity not only with most of the Western Canon but also with his predecessors in the phenomenological tradition. This book makes Heidegger's thought accessible to the general reader, but even then, one must have at least a basic idea of what Kant had to say about Being, and what are the general aims and notions of phenomenology. This can be accomplished by a quick search through Wikipedia, and would be great for helping one to get through this book.
I can't recommend this book enough ; a lucid, and thoroughly engaging introduction to one of the darkest and most unsettling thinkers in philosophy. It's the kind of book that changes your life.