I like those "_____________ for Dummies" books myself. Though I have not looked at the one for photoshop others in that series have been a great help to me, clear, to the point, with detail shaved down to the essance. Also I think there were some good on-line tutorials at the Adobe website, the main thing is to go one step at a time.... try to tackle learn one tool in each work session. and experiment. and experiment. and experiment.