Nigel Warburton's book Philosophy Classics has gotten me interested in Descartes. What of Descartes books would you recommend? Any secondary literature especially good?

I was just thinking I could string together, "Rationalist Empiricist Existential Egoism" and I'd cover metaphysics, epistemology and ethics in one fell swoop. It'd also be a totally incomprehensible name.

I'm currently reading "The Science of the Mind," by Owen J. Flanagan Jr. The first chapter is on Descartes; it's pretty much just a basic summary of his thought. At the end, he gives some suggested secondary reading: Descartes: A Study of His Philosophy by Kenny Anthony, Descartes: The project of Pure Enquiry by Bernard Williams (aside: I had to read a bunch of Bernard Williams stuff for a class once and always liked it) and Descartes by Margaret Wilson. I haven't read any of it so who knows what it's like; but go ahead and give the 'ol one-two perusal why dontcha.

If you want to know about his philosophy rather than his biography THE book to get is:

Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Descartes and the "Meditations"
by
Gary Hatfield

Of course, it assumes you've read 'The Meditations'. I use it to teach undergrad courses in Descartes and it's very, very good!