[Sethomas]

I learned most of what I know by thumbing through encyclopedia in middle school. I was mainly concerned with the middle ages so I focused on that, and I expanded on that whenever something very specific struck my interest in a different era.

For a general survey, I'd mostly have to agree with Max. I'd recommend going to half.com and look for a really cheap college text. Once you get a good feel for what you like, then read a very specific work about it, like a biography or an overview of a war or something. If it's written well enough, the latter book will fill in the historical context of the topic in such a way that you get a wealth of detail spanning a good length of time.