I don't suggest the autoflowering strains. You can't clone them, apparently.

If you want a small, bushy plant... go with an indica. They don't stretch too much, except they can get pretty wide. Really, though, don't expect it to ultimately be easy. There are harder strains to cultivate, but growing quality cannabis in general takes effort.

For my first grow, I'm going for Dr Atomic's Northern Lights. I'm not sure about the general "difficulty," but either way I'll be growing it. Like ProGroWannabe said, if you read as much as you can about growing, it won't be as hard. I've known a lot of people who have started grows without reading a thing, and their plant ends up dying, because they didn't even know about using quality soil and having balanced nutes! And not to mention that their grow-room setup sucked.

Go get The Cannabis Grow Bible. It's good, and you'll learn a lot.

Most people will suggest starting with bag seed, though. If you get lucky and find a seed in some really good smoke, take that opportunity to keep that seed and germinate it sometime. Plus, if you grow that bagseed out successfully, and it came from like an 1/8th for $50, just think... that's a fucking bargain! Because you can grow that perpetually, and keep taking clones from a mother plant.