Quote (Lifesong @ Dec 3 2009 03:36am)
Can many of these titles generally be bought at a local book store, say, Barnes and Noble?
Yeah, easily.
On a side note, everyone keeps tossing around Critique of Pure Reason as if it's a simple starting place in philosophy. Unfortunately, Kant is well known for being one of the most difficult philosophical reads to try and understand. If you do dive into Kant, I would recommend picking up one of those Kant companion books (or even a For Dummies type book) and then diving into his work. I don't mean to say anyone here is incapable of reading Kant, but if you are starting him while still being new to philosophical readings, you're guaranteed to miss a lot of what he is trying to say.
Also, it looks like the only "ancient" philosophy being recommended so far would be Plato and Aristotle. However, Plato's Republic and Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics are great places to begin in philosophy no matter what your purpose in reading.