Hello, I'm a freshman in college and I have a passion for studying history. While I've taken an AP US and AP Euro course, I've also delved into other pockets of the world, collecting good resources for a study on China, Japan and Rome. But there is one area of western history that still troubles me; the period from the fall of Rome to where my European course started which is around the renaissance. While I have a very brief overview of the subject, I would love to cover it as in depth as some of my other AP courses(Which usually give a general overview of the period with anaylsis on economic, political and social effects on society). I'm looking for a series of books that cover western Europe, Eastern Rome, and information on the Middle east and Arabic people. I understand this is a nearly impossible task for one book, but I wouldn't mind a series of books or at least a guideline to what I should be looking for. Also In general I wonder how Historians select their sources or do further reading when they themselves are interested in learning about a new period/part of the world. Any help or guidance would be great appreciated!
Unfortunately, the latest build of the subreddit's book list for the Middle Ages does not has much choice for the Early Middle Ages.
Since you seems to be interested in Latin West as well as in the Middle East, I'd recommend the following set of the books:
(General)
(Late Antiquity/ Early Medieval Ages)
(High Middle Ages)
[Wickham 2016] is currently the most standard overview work for the European Middle Ages in general, and I prefer it to Wim Blockmans & Peter Hoppenbrouwer's Introduction to Medieval Europe 300-1500 (2017) , mentioned in the subreddit's booklist, but it might not so suitable for the first-timer's read.
[Wickham 2009] is more readable and also includes a brief section on the rising Islam powers, so combining it with other books on the High Middle Ages may be a good idea ([Sarris 2011] is also a balanced and readable overview, but it does not cover Umayyad and Abbadid Caliphates).
If you don't stick to the detailed occurrence of the 10th to the 13th centuries, [Bartlett 1994] still offers excellent analytical frameworks as well as topical introductions. If you are interested in more factual details, while [Cotts 2013] offers a schematic arranged overviews, the classic, [Jordan 2001] is written in chronological ordered chapters.
Also In general I wonder how Historians select their sources or do further reading when they themselves are interested in learning about a new period/part of the world.
While I cannot say it always works the best, the classic and still usually good way to learn hitherto little known field of research is to make it rule to check the end matters of the book, like 'Further Readings' section. The good introduction book usually recommends ca. a dozen books (both overview and more specialized study) for further reading. OUP's Very Short Introduction series like [Rubin 2014] generally at least serve this purpose, though they might not be always the best introduction book for the topic in question.
Alternatively, you can check some histriographical essays (research introduction) or online introductory reference by topic like Oxford Reference Online, or even some university library writes and publishes a study guide for a certain topic (period/ area) of history, with the reference (call) no. in their library shelves, as shown below:
It may be worth checking whether your university library also has such introductory guides for eager students.