What to read

I began by reading the following books: Awakening The Buddha Within by Lama Surya Das, After the Ecstacy, the Laundry by Jack Kornfield, and Everyday Zen and Nothing Special by Charlotte Joko Beck. That gave me a Mahayana, a Theravada and a Zen perspective. Then I read the Dhammapada. 

After I started meditating, I read Sangharakshita, Thich Nhat Hanh, Ayya Khema, Jack Kornfield. Later I dug into the Middle Length Discourses, Long Discourses, Connected Discourses and the Numerical Discourses. Bodhicaryāvatāra is awesome. I read the Mahayana sutras and Ten Thousand Songs of Milarepa, Perfection of Wisdom texts. Lately I've been reading the Chinese hermit monks translated by Red Pine. The Eternal Legacy by Sangharakshita is an overview of Buddhist literature. If you're into Zen, I thought The Circle of The Way by O'Brian was interesting, helped me to realize some Zen writers I hadn't picked up yet. I love all the literature of Buddhism and it's quite a project to read it all.

I liked Living with the Devil by Stephen Batchelor. I like Great Faith, Great Wisdom by Ratnaguna. The fruitful darkness by Joan Halifax. I reread The Life of the Buddha by Nanamoli over and over. Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind is a classic. If you get into the Brahma Viharas I liked Boundless Heart (2017) by Christina Feldman. Breath by Breath by Goldstein is for anapanasati. Lokos has a good book on Patience. I had a great retreat once where I read the Therigatha. David Loy's Nonduality was intense. I got into Thai forest biographies for a while, really like Mae Chee Kaew and Ajahn Mun. I reread A Survey of Buddhism by Sangharakshita.

I personally don't read any Chogyam Trungpa, Reginald Ray or Pema Chodron any more because I see that line as producing problems in American Buddhism, what has come out from the consequences of Trungpa's crazy wisdom, though I read most of their books before finding out more. I don't read Alan Watts because he was a self described entertainer and didn't really take care of his 7 children, but many get excited by him.

Each sect would have a program of reading along with teaching, and I would learn from a sect for the first 10 years. I'd recommend Theravada sects to start out with to get a good foundation in the early teachings. What the Buddha Taught by Rahula tends to be their first recommendation.