I like this book: http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Philosophy-James-White/dp/0495158631 http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Philosophy-James-White/dp... It ha

I like this book: http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Philosophy-James-White/dp/0495158631 http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Philosophy-James-White/dp... It has a collection of smaller readings so you don't get bored and/or get confused getting through a 500 page tome on your first go. The subjects covered are fairly interesting (epistemology, philosophy of mind, etc.), gathering material from a mix of time periods. A problem with a book like that is that it doesn't have commentary built-in, so if you misread something and run with it, you might not realize it in the future, if ever. I used the above book in a class, which allowed me to bounce ideas off of other students and, of course, the professor. Consider getting a book more along the lines of a textbook when you're starting out so that you have readings along with commentary by a person knowledgeable in the subject. Oh, and the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy is useful: http://plato.stanford.edu/ http://plato.stanford.edu/