A personal choice of western books that are easier to read:

Category: Complex but accessible

Wisdom Wide and Deep: A Practise Handbook for Matering Jhana and Vipassana -
Shaila Catherine, San Fransisco: Highly recommended, probably the best western book I ever saw on how to practise meditation in the tradition as taught by the Pa Auk Sayadaw.

http://www.imsb.org/about/teachers.php

The Meditator's Atlas, an English commentary on the Visuddhi Magga - by Matthew Flickstein

Practising the Jhanas, by Stephen Snyder and Tina Rasmussen

Traditional  Concentration Meditation as presented by the Venerable Pa Auk Sayadaw

Author

Jack Kornfield

I read a number of his books when I started meditating and his background of having meditated in Asia and modern psychology really helped me to give a proper balanced place to this new experience, and the courage to go deeper into meditation.

Film

"What the Bleep do we Know"

The sequel, "Down the Rabbithole"

I always loved science and I loved this film, it triggered something deep inside.