Pretty new to all this myself. While I did manage to buy Poser recently due to working some OT that gave me a bit of extra $$ to spend, it's not needed. Go to DAZ www.daz3d.com and download their free DAZ|Studio. While you're there, grab their free figures (Victoria 3, Michael 3, Aiko 3 & Emoitiguy). Combine those with freebies available from DAZ, here and various other places, and you'll have enough to get your feet wet. No "Poser for Dummies" book that I know of, but there are wonderful tutorials all over the place. Geep has some great ones here too.

John