One of the best lenses you can own, so they say, is a 50mm - a 'nifty-fifty'. You can get very cheap ones (even Canon branded at $150!) and they are fantastic - nice and light, small, and great results. That said, when shooting wide open at say f/1.8 you have to be bang on with focus or else it's all over the place. It can be very frustrating, trust me...
I took mine to work today to get to grips with it all over again; started easy, nothing fancy. Here's a selection of shots I managed in my lunch break. So lucky to work for the University of Waikato where there's lots of great things to capture - a wonderful environment to be in.