[stujohnson]

As a complete newbie I need some suggestions on a beginners book. As a newbie with very limited finances I need to make the first one be the right one, and be advanced enough to keep me busy for a while (Christmas is a long ways off).

Thanks in advance.

stujo

[telex4]

See this discussion for some similar advice that will be instructive depending on the distribution of GNU/Linux you are using/going to use.

I depends slightly on what you mean by "newbie". Have you used GNU/Linux before? Are you just thinking of making the switch from Windows? Also, did you get any documentation/books with the copy of GNU/Linux you bought? If you buy a boxed copy of SuSE, for example, you get several instructive books that will help you to start using your computer, just by telling you what applications are on offer and how to use them, and how to do basic system configuration.

As for the definitive book to keep you busy until Christmas, I'd say "Running Linux" by O'Reilly, which has enough advanced topics to keep you fiddling around, and will get you to the point where you can confidently find, understand and use more tutorials on the Internet. This book however might leave you confused if you've not even used GNU/Linux before.

So in answer to your question, I pose more questions about your current level of understanding