Hi. Welcome to the hobby.
== Books ==
How to Brew is great. Even if you're doing all-grain, just skip the sections on "how the mash works" and follow the instructions. Once you get more comfortable with the overall process, go ahead and read the technical sections.
Brewing Classic Styles is really good stuff for having a solid recipe to start with on nearly any of the BJCP styles. They are extract-with-steeping-grain recipes, but also include conversions for all-grain.
The Complete Joy of Homebrewing was the first book I read. The process was outdated, since it was written before the modern day homebrew shops we have now really existed. A new edition is out, but I have not read it. It should be worth flipping through though.
Brew Like a Pro probably won't help you get started, but it's an interesting read for understanding how a small brewery works. It does have some neat homebrew projects included, if you're into DIY. This is a good one for when you just want to read about brewing. Dave Miller has a good style and lots of good advice.
Get 10-20 batches under your belt, ask a bunch of questions here and elsewhere, join a local homebrew club, and then buy Gordon Strong's Brewing Better Beer. I love this book, but it would have been useless when I was starting out.
== General advice ==
Believe the hype about sanitation. Get some PBW for cleaning and StarSan for sanitizing. Compared to a hypothetical newbie who ignores this advice, your beer will be better by far.
It's a hobby, so go crazy on recipes if you want, but you'll learn more by brewing simple, repeatable, recipes. Check out SMaSH brewing and squirrel it away as an option when you get the itch to start making your own recipes.
Buy the biggest kettle you can afford and that you can heat. If you can start with a 10+ gallon kettle on day 1 you can comfortably make any 5-gallon batch of beer via any method you want: extract, boil-in-a-bag, all-grain.
Charlie Papazian said it best: Relax, Don't Worry, Have a Homebrew. "Brewing" is really "mixing clean yeast food". The yeast knows what it's doing and can handle a wide range of brewer errors.