Not sure if this will help anyone out there, but learn how to take notes efficiently first. Learning a markup language helps a lot. Be very selective when choosing a book; don't hesitate to throw away a crappy book. Avoid books geared towards getting you "up and running" despite their reviews, they're never worth it. The more sources the better. The only subjects I don't spend time on are non-core API methods; just take note that there is an API and where it is, but referring to the official documentation is better because there's never much you can add of value. Ultimately plan on spending 6-9 months of weekends or 2-3 solid months to learn the bulk of a new language if you're taking notes. If it's your first programming language picking a simple project to do is helpful because otherwise you won't know the "why".
