Reddit mentions of Texts and Traditions: A Source Reader for the Study of Second Temple and Rabbinic Judaism

I recommend picking up From Text to Tradition, a History of Judaism in Second Temple and Rabbinic Times and its companion text Texts and Traditions: A Source Reader for the Study of Second Temple and Rabbinic Judaism by Lawrence Schiffman.

You shouldn't bother to purchase the rabbinic writings themselves. They are massive legal tomes and you won't have any context for understanding them or what they're doing. Between the Mishnah and the Talmud, they are largely available online in English, and the translations are fine for glancing at.

Honestly, start reading the wikipedia entries on Rabbinic works and you'll get a lot of good info.

Also check out:

Stemberger, Günter and Hermann Strack. Introduction to the Talmud and Midrash. Trans., ed. Markus Bockmuehl. Edinburgh- T & T Clark, 1996.

Rubenstein, Jeffery. The Culture of the Babylonian Talmud. Baltimore- Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003.

Levine, Lee. The Rabbinic Class of Roman Palestine in Late Antiquity. Jerusalem- Yad Yitzhak Ben-Zvi- New York- Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 1989.

Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism- a Parallel History of their Origins and Early Development. Ed. Hershal Shanks. Washington D.C.- Biblical Archaeology Society, 1993.