You can read the state of a button using Arduino and a few lines of code. The actual state is shown in the Serial Monitor window as 0 or 1, 0 meaning the button is not pressed and 1 that the button is ...

So you've already outgrown Arduino's most beginner-friendly board, the Uno, and are looking to move on to bigger, more exciting projects. In that case, the Nano family might just be what you need.