My first suggestion would be to come to our workshop this coming Tuesday, where you'll definitely be able to learn a bit about your camera & digital photography in general. It's at the AV Senior Center, 777 W. Jackman in Lancaster.

As for books, I haven't read many but find that the ones by Scott Kelby are pretty good. I have a couple from his "The Digital Photography Book" collection (there are 3 or 4 now, I think) and find them to be good.

The strap that I've used for some time now is the Op/Tech Pro strap. It comes in a couple of different attachment types. It's neoprene and really helps absorb the weight of the camera.

For now, the "syllabus" is the PDF that's linked in the article. It's mostly about photography as opposed to camera operations, but still has good information. For instance, you'd first need to know when to use Aperture Priority vs. Shutter Priority, then find out how to set it on your camera.

We also have an informal "discussion group" that meets on the 2nd & 4th Friday at Denny's, Ave. K & 20th St. West at 6:30. Next get-together is the 28th. We encourage people to bring cameras & manuals, along with questions. For that matter, our workshops & meetings include people of all skill levels. Workshops typically cover some particular aspect of photography or post-processing, sometimes as a prelude to a field trip where we try out what we've learned.

I read a lot of books, including many of photography. If I had to suggest one book to start with it would be "The Complete Idiots Guide to Digital Photography." This is the most complete beginner's book I've found. However, you should visit Barnes-&-Noble and check out their stock of books on photography. Plan on spending at least half an hour, maybe an hour going through them. I don't consider "Photography for Dummies" to be nearly as good. Check out Amazon.com for similar books.

That said, you can parse out the task into smaller pieces and buy books specializing in each part. For example, composition is almost exactly the same whether you are using film or digital. That means that you can use any old book on composition. Kodak made a nice series called "The Kodak Library of Creative Photography," one of which is titled "Mastering Composition and Light." Amherst Media has a series called "Digital Quick Guide" which I especially like because it's very visual rather than textual. A nice one in this series is "Posing Techniques for Digital Portraits." These are available for reasonable prices through Amazon.com.

Some other aspects of photography that can be parsed out are "lighting," "DSLR basics (aperature, exposure, etc which are the same as for print cameras)," "post processing (Photoshopping)," and such. Most of these subjects are covered well in used books on SLR (35 mm) cameras, of which I have a few I've bought in yard sales and used book sales. The local libraries also have good books for checkout.

If you're really serious then you should probably take classes through the local college or from one of the private tutors who belong to the club. If you don't mind listening to other amateurs then just ask around at one of the meetings and someone will likely be willing to help you. Depending on schedules I might be able to help you somewhat. And then there's the Friday Night Discussion Group (advertisement here) which gathers on the 2nd and 4th Fridays, 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm, at the Denny's on the corner of 20th West and Ave K. Helping each other out is what this group was formed for. The next one is this coming Friday, the 28th.