Reference Material

A. Dictionaries

1. Vaman Shivram Apte, A Practical Sanaskrit-English Dictionary, Motilal Banrasidass Publishers Private Limited, Delhi
2. Sir Monier Monier-Williams, A Sanskrit-English Dictionary, Motilal Banrasidass Publishers Private Limited, Delhi
3. Online dictionary – This is a good dictionary. You have both Sanskrit to English and English to Sanskrit here. This site also has pointers to other standard online dictionary
4. Any edition/publication of Amarakosa

B. Reading Material

1. Charles Rockwell Lanman, A Sanskrit Reader. Motilal Banrasidass Publishers Private Limited, Delhi [This is a good starting text, with a collection of sample material from many of the Sanskrit works. ]
2. You can also read the Hitopadesa, Kathasarithasagara, Sriramodantam, Srikrishnavilasam etc. as starting Sanskrit texts.