One book that no one mentioned is very basic and better than the manual that comes with Poser is,  Poser 7 Revealed.  Practical Poser 7 is good book and has some Poser basics on the CD, but it is more advanced and might be intimidating for a new person.

Another book that no one ever seems to mention is The Secrets of Poser Experts.  I learned a lot from that book , things I never knew about Poser and I think that though the techniques described are somewhat advanced that it is a great book for inspiration.

Both Poser 7 Revealed and Secrets of Poser Experts are relatively inexpensive for graphics book.

Also definitely check out the Poser 7 training on Lynda.com, you can watch several chapters for free.  Now-a-days I seem to be able to learn more from audio-visual presentations than reading books about programs--it's more clear to me how to complete tasks by watching them rather than trying to translate written steps into commands in the programs.