Reddit reviews Film History: An Introduction, 3rd Edition

Here's a fantastic book that I used for a film class. It's great and goes through all the periods and innovations of film, up until about 2010. It's a bit expensive, but I think it was worth it:

http://www.amazon.com/Film-History-Introduction-Kristin-Thompson/dp/0073386138/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1416711681&sr=8-5&keywords=history+on+film

The standard textbook is Film History: An Introduction. Pretty thorough and a good read.

And for viewing, let the Criterion collection guide you.

Watch a lot of movies! Like you said, he worked in a movie store and that gave him the opportunity to watch all kinds of different movies.

If you watch a lot of movies, eventually you'll recognize stuff like certain camera techniques, which will say a lot about the director. Did they see it in movie A from 1963 and liked how that made them feel which made them want to share the feeling, or did they see it in movie B from 1999 which they loved as a kid and therefore want to reach kids in the same way?

Also, try analyzing movies instead of just "watching" them. Try to figure out why they used that angle, those colors, that lighting, why they wrote that line for that character etc.

Get interested, make it a hobby to watch movies, read books on the subject (this one's supposed to be pretty good).

Anyways, I hope this made sense.
Movies is a lot more than Avatar and The Hangover. Get out there and both watch and question everything!

By the way, /r/truefilm has a lot of good people who'll guide you further.

Thompson and Bordwell wrote what I've heard is the quintessential history of film book called Film History: An Introduction. It's a textbook so it's textbook expensive but if you shop around you might be able to find a cheap copy. It is pretty readable and goes very in depth.

You can't go wrong with Bordwell and Thompson's Film History: An Introduction. It's not really concise but really easy to read and navigate through.

For just an introduction to film history, I think it is widely agreed that this is the best one.