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I've been fairly influenced by existentialism myself, though most of that is from Kierkegaard, who is not really an existentialist. If you're really interested, you should first read "Being and Time" by Heidegger and "Cartesian Meditations" by Husserl. Neither of these are existentialists, but both had a profound influence on Sartre. The key work of Sartre's is "Being and Nothingness", which explicates the philosophy underlying his novels. Also, if you find these thinkers interesting, you might also like Merleau-Ponty, whose major work is "Phenomenology of Perception".
Will's statement on the major points of 'existentialism' is largely correct, but I'd like to add two main points. First of all, it's important to keep in mind the emphasis on freedom. For Sartre, at least, man is totally free. Even the facts are variable, depending on the choices made by human beings. The obstacles we encounter are all obstacles of our own making. Secondly, there's not really any such thing as existentialism, in the way there's Platonism or Phenomenology. The thinkers generally considered existentialists (primarily Sartre and Camus, but also Jaspers and Andersch) have much more widely diverging philosophies than is normally seen within a single school. And, IIRC, Camus never accepted the title, Heidegger rejected it vehemently, and Sartre rejected it later in life.
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"Die Deutschen meinen, daß die Kraft sich in Härte und Grausamkeit offenbaren müsse, sie unterwerfen sich dann gerne und mit Bewunderung:[...]. Daß es Kraft giebt in der Milde und Stille, das glauben sie nicht leicht."
"The Germans believe that power must reveal itself in hardness and cruelty and then submit themselves gladly and with admiration[...]. They do not believe readily that there is power in meekness and calm."
-- Friedrich Nietzsche
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