I’d second @Cernunnos; Spirit communication is invaluable to many people’s practice, but even more bare bones is Energy Work. Learn to sense and manipulate energy before anything else, so that you aren’t working blind and deaf. @Purple looks to have an excellent list of exercises there. There’s your college 101 course.
Following that, read everything that you can get your hands on. Some things will draw you more strongly than others. Focus on those areas. Get really good at them, then move on.
The reading lists can get REALLY long. As you continue to learn and research, you’ll pick better and better books. Granted, you’re at BALG, so you’re a ways up the good shelves to begin with. However, the focus here IS more on the Black Magick and Evocation side of things, which can be intimidating. There are a lot of publishing houses around, and things you can find in the library if you’re not ready to commit to big purchases.
Llewellyn tends to publish at the more shallow end of the pool, but nevertheless, you’ll benefit from Energy Essentials for Witches and Spellcasters and The Un-Spell Book by Mya Om, and Instant Magick by Christopher Penczak. Check out Brain Magick by Philip Farber, and everything every written by Konstantinos. Then get out of that box.
Spirit summoning and Evocation seems to be popular around here- the Solomonic approach is a solid one, I’d second @Grimner in recommending Modern Magick, by Donald Michael Kraig. If you prefer some historical add-on to that, The Black Arts by Richard Cavendish and The Book of Black Magic by Arthur Edward Waite are practically interchangable in many ways.
Drawing Down the Moon by Margot Adler is a great history of the modern Neopagan movement, but is also a dense read which focuses on earth-based religious practice in North America and ignores areligious occultism. The Book of English Magic by Philip Carr-gomm & Richard Heygate is exactly the opposite- a broad but shallow view of magickal practice focusing on the British Isles but mostly avoiding deep spiritual discourse.
Advice, then.
You don’t need anything to practice Magick except knowledge. With knowledge you can direct your practice, and with practice you develop your relationship to the world around you, and all its spirits and wonders.
All the books in the world are only worth the knowledge you can gain from them. The books themselves don’t matter. Given time, you might find that you learn better from the spirits themselves, and stop buying books entirely.
The fanciest ritual tools are still only a mnemonic to help your practice. They’re symbols for forces, and those forces are there whether or not you have a physical object. Don’t stress over props. They’re just theatre to sell your mind on its own power.
Your relationship to yourself and the world is everything. You’re trying to manipulate the forces of the cosmos- treat them fairly. Take care of the spirits you work with, including yourself. Honor your pacts, pay your debts.
Doubt Everything. Our western culture conditions us to value Faith in the Judeo-Christian sense. Faith is equated with virtue, and the natural response to admitting a lack of virtue is to be ashamed. You don’t have to hold tight to a belief in magick like it’s a lifeline against the Or Else of some cosmic punishment. Examine yourself and your results honestly, because it’s the only way to actually progress without delusion. Doubt your ideas, but believe in your ability.
Listen to the Wind. Yes, seriously. Listen to trees, and roads, and buildings, and all their indwelling spirits. Talking with entities outside yourself is easy. Hearing them takes practice.
I think that might already be a bit much to dump on you. Stick with it, and of course, if you’re hungry for more, there is definitely more. There is always more.
thanks for sharing!