I want to get into philosophy. Recommend me some basic and understandable books. I’m looking for collection of philosophical essays and articles. But others will do too.
A good intro book to western philosophy is Will Durant - the story of philosophy. Very easy to read, and some chapters are insightful and very entertaining.
It’s an attempt to humanize philosophy it by focusing each chapter on one important philosopher, their life, and the historical context their ideas sprang from.
A Theory of Justice by John Rawles
Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder. Not a collection, but an easy-to-read overview.
Much heavier than what you are asking but worthwhile nevertheless:
A New History of Western Philosophy by Anthony Kenny
The title says it all, it passes through most of the important philosophers of the western tradition. It is perfect to understand what (academic) philosophy is all about. Took me four months to finish but it was definitely worth it.
A history of humanity with some thinking points in Yuval Noah Harari’s Deus series
I like the Very Short Introduction series - they’re short non-fiction books aimed more-or-less at educated adults who aren’t so familiar with a topic. And I found their Philosphy book to be worth a read.
It spends some time introducing some common philosophical questions before covering a few classic texts.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is kind of a classic:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen_and_the_Art_of_Motorcycle_Maintenance