I'll be honested when i read the books it looked very imtimitating then i came to the fact it has to be done, so i did the tutorials which came with the software and in a week (might take longer or shorter it matters on the person) i was able to simple tasks, then eventually with the basics start to mess around and once you hit a point on where you need help with an advance part of a project then refer to the book or else ask someone that knows the software well and learn from what you need to know to build stuff rather then try to over whelm your self with reading and learning every thing if you don't plan on useing it all... that's my best way to help you...
