Thank you for all your wonderful suggestions. For me personally, I began with:

Sidhhartha by Hermann Hesse

The Miracle of Mindfulness by Thich Nhat Hanh

A Path with Heart: A Guide Through the Perils & Promises of Spiritual Life by Jack Kornfield

The Tibetan Book of Living & Dying by Sogyal Rinpoche.

Awakening the Buddha Within: Tibetan Wisdom for the Western World by Lama Surya Das

Pema Chodron's The Wisdom of No Escape & the Path of Loving Kindness

Ayya Khema's Being Nobody, Going Nowhere: Meditations on the Buddhist Path

The Mind and the Way : Buddhist Reflections of Life

In This Very Life: The Liberation Teachings of the Buddha by Kate Wheeler (Editor), Sayadaw U. Pandita, U. Aggacitta (Translator)

[odd ... good reads linked the first book to the dhammapada and the second to robinson crusoe ... heigh ho!:]

in finer degree of granularity, a buddhist philosophy of religion is strictly in the philososphy category. a book making links between buddhism and existential philosophy which i'm fond of is alone with others

We are having a book study of Words of My Perfect Teacher. It is in my home but, hopefully, there will be online discussion, too. All are welcome:

buddhistbookstudy@yahoogroups.com buddhistbookstudy-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Well, I learned about Buddhism at a very young age and have maintained an interest in it for quite sometime, and I just picked up "Siddhartha". I would recommend that.

as for books, what they said, above

also
Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind (this year's the 50th anniversary of suzuki roshi's coming to the west) this is on the top of most Best Buddhist Books lists

another chestnut:
Zen Flesh, Zen Bones A Collection of Zen and Pre-Zen Writings


note: those are both in the zen zone. there's also vipassana (insight meditation); pure land (the largest school in the world, and in the west); tibetan (vajrayana); nicheren, and soka gakai; etc. the first that treats all but the last equally and in depth is my own humble tome ...The Complete Idiot's Guide to Buddhism, 3rd Edition but then i'm divinely proud -- and you can read the second edition absolutely FOR FREE at books.google.com [just look it up by my name:]. for more info: http://word.to

(remember: a book about buddhism is like a spoon. you also want to taste the soup itself.

to put that another way, the best book on buddhism ... is in your own heart, written with your life, on a large scroll called time. enjoy!)

I would like to recomend Start Where You Are, by Pema Chodron, The Tibetan book of Living and Dying by Sogyal Rinpoche, and, if Vajrayana is your flavor, Secrets of the Vajra World. Oh and ANYTHING by Chogyam Trungpa!

The Dhammapada is a good one - I have a good version with commentary on each verse.

The Dalai Lama has a few good basic books as well that discuss the Four Noble Truths, compassion etc.
I'll post some to the list here if I may.

If you're looking for a history of Buddhism and Buddhist thought, you might try Buddha or Bust! by Perry Garfunkel. I enjoyed it.

Perhaps merely as an additional reference on history to understand Buddhism's origins I might recommend (1) George Feuerstein's The Yoga-Sutra of Patanjali: A New Translation & Commentary, which I have added here to this group. (2) Encountering the Dharma: Daisaku Ikeda, Soka Gakkai, and the Globalization of Buddhist Humanism (Paperback)
by Richard Seager

On the above books (1) This book was given to me by a friend. Rather in-depth yet delves (with English translations alongside the Sanskrit) into the basic principles upon which Buddhist thought is based, including the 4 Noble virtues (often called the 4 Noble truths); the 3 poisons; 9 obstacles on the path to realization; & the 5 categories of fluctuations. By way of credit: This author co-founded & formerly directed the Yoga Research Center at Durham, England. At the time of this printing (1989) he had written 8 other books. (2) to be updated

Thank you very much for your feedback. I have found "The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching" at my local library. I have also checked out "The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha" and "Buddha and the Gospel of the Buddha". Has anyone read either of those two books?

I'll second Heart of the Buddha's Teaching. Very clear and warm introduction to the fundamentals of the practice. I also appreciated Stephen Batchelor's Buddhism without Beliefs, and Steve Hagen's Buddhism Plain and Simple.
Whenever I need a return to the basics, however, I first go to Thich Nhat Hanh.

I also agree with 'Mindfulness in Plain English'. It was the first meditation book that I ever read and it was incredibly helpful.

I agree re: Mindfulness in Plain English. An enjoyable read, and works as an excellent starting point for meditation.

Hi Steven,

I think two excellent and easy-to-read introductory books are THE HEART OF THE BUDDHA'S TEACHING, by Thich Nhat Hanh, and MINDFULNESS IN PLAIN ENGLISH, by Bhante H. Gunaratana. The former covers the philosophy; the latter covers the practice. Both are very enjoyable and can serve as easy stepping stones to further reading.

I am looking to leanrn about the Buddhist philosophy. Does anyone have suggestions for great introductory books? Thank you in advance.