>>7277103If you don't want to be bogged down by a lot of early philosophy, here's a pretty decent starting list:
1.) The Republic-Plato
2.) Twilight of the Idols-Nietzsche
3.) Meditations-Descartes
This is a pretty good starting three, imo. Nietzsche comes after Descartes, but I would recommend Nietzsche second because he's much more interesting to read and choosing Republic and Twilight as your first two philosophical texts is the best introduction to philosophy you can have, insofar as a two-text introduction can be, that is.
Then go back to Descartes so you can build on your understanding of how epistemology has developed in the west. If you really want to get into philosophy start with epistemology and metaphysics. Epistemology isn't that hard to understand, especially with popular movies like The Matrix disseminating its ideas.