> Some part of me wants to just live in solitude with little or no social interaction at all, but I deliberately avoid it since my rational side tells me I'll end up depressed.

Yep! That's the struggle.

This guy has a pretty nice intro, with a quick 10 minute or so practice you can do: https://youtu.be/3Uqoxo_jPXQ?t=3m33s

Then there's this book which works pretty well as an intro because it's a collection of diverse perspectives, from different people, on the subject: http://www.amazon.com/Beginners-Guide-Meditation-Inspiration...

Alan Watts is also generally pretty good—can find talks from him on youtube, and he's written many books.

Thanks! I'll hopefully have a look, at some point.