This is a friendly invitation and beginner's guide to meditation--of various forms, from various traditions, Eastern and Western--with suggestions for picking a form suited to you, and helpful advice for the times when you get lost or stuck. The book is sprinkled with quotes from all sorts of wise people and cute little drawings of a meditator, and it includes an extensive directory of groups offering meditation instruction, plus a good list of suggestions for further reading.
Ram Dass, born Richard Alpert, left his position as a psychology professor at Harvard in the 1960s to explore mind-expansion through psychedelic drugs and then through the guidance of an Indian guru. His bestselling 1971 book "Be Here Now" includes a chronicle of this journey and, like "Journey of Awakening," invites the reader to spiritual practice, but it focuses more on Hinduism and is written, illustrated, and typeset in a very hippie, psychedelic style, so you might prefer or definitely not prefer that book.
Welcome to spiritual practice!