There is a bewildering array of bows for the beginning archer to choose from. They range from the English longbow Robin Hood used through the modern compound bow, which looks like Darth Vader’s cat’s cradle.
There are bows designed to be used while standing on the ground (Robin’s longbow), bows designed to be used by mounted cavalry, (the horsebow pictured above) and bows that are fine just about anywhere except inside a phone booth.
I tend to think that a good starting point is the simplest bow you can find in the culture you live in. In some parts of the world, that would be an elaborately recurved bow shot with an ivory thumb ring. In the United States, it would be a basic longbow or recurve bow, using the Mediterranean draw to pull the string back.
My first bow was a PSE Snake: a single piece of fiberglass in a recurve shape. It looks like this.
I added a self adhesive arrow rest and wrapped some (imitation) leather around the handle (aka the riser) to give it a better grip.
Backyard Archery 