grylliade.org Free minds. Free markets. Free beer.

If you're interested in Rothbard in particular, read For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto.

But be aware: Rothbard uses "libertarian" to mean "anarcho-capitalist." Also, disclaimer: I disagree with Rothbard on several things, especially WRT the Cold War. But I learned a lot from this book anyway.

A more closely reasoned book, IMO (and also a shorter one) is The Machinery of Freedom: Guide to a Radical Capitalism by David D. Friedman. This is also about anarcho-capitalism, but a lot of what it says can be applied to libertarianism/anti-statism in general. There is at least one area where Friedman disagrees with Rothbard, and that is the problem of "national defense" of an anarchic area from a state -- Friedman thinks this would be a lot harder than Rothbard seems to.

Another book I like very much is The Discovery of Freedom by Rose Wilder Lane. Caveat: It has been criticized as having errors in it (e.g., Mohammed didn't invent trench warfare like Lane said, the Romans did; Mohammed only reinvented it). Wilder herself said that it was written "at white heat" and really fast and she wasn't as careful as she should have been, and eventually described it as "a very bad book." But her errors aren't in her main points, and it's still a great and very inspirational book, IMO and that of many others. Lane was wildly traveled and had many interesting things to say.

I haven't read any Rothbard, but I can suggest Hayek. I really like Road to Serfdom, it's up there with On Liberty on the list of "things you must read to understand freedom"*

*Okay, not really, but they are very good.

For a more conservative-leaning libertarian (or is there is someone who is a conservative you might try to persuade) read some PJ O'Rourke, either Parliament of Whores.
Not very intellectually hearty stuff, but enjoyable reads on what one guy sees in RL when he encounters the Leviathan up and close.
I also thought Milton Friedman's Free to Choose was a very clear, concise, consequentialist argumentation on why guv'ment doesn't work and why the Open Society is Virtuous...or something like that.

I'm sure after reading Rothbard (of whom I have not read except for excerpts), all of that will seem like so much flimsy pap, but it's pretty good/simple stuff.

And it is not Mary Rose Wilder (duh!). It is Rose Wilder Lane. Sorry I was trying to blast this off while my sister was relentlessly calling my cell to go pick her up.

I must cop to only having read of Rothbard (in its entirity) The Panic of 1819 (.pdf), which is a good historical read.

On the topic of O' Rourke, didn't he do a cliffs notes style overview of On The Wealth Of Nations.. If so, has anyone read it and can you recommend it? The actual book, I remember hearing, is not the easiest read as Smith had a tendency to wander. I'm certain that it's all brilliant, but I wouldn't want to start something I can't finish (again).

The Machinery of Freedom was so accessible to me that I read it from cover to cover as a dopey eighteen year-old in about 2 days. Just in time too, as my first election was coming up and I had until then planned on voting for Dukakis (of course, you know who I ended up voting for).

Ah, thanks for mentioning O'Rourke's book on Wealth; I'd been kinda meaning to check into that one of these days, but then I forgot all about it. It could have gone on my Christmas list; well, now it will go on my birthday list.

Wealth of Nations isn't essential reading anymore, I don't think, because it's pretty much a prototype for modern economics. Theory of Moral Sentiments is a much more interesting book.