Book suggestions:

  * Harley Hahn, _Student's Guide to UNIX_ 
    __very elementary, very low-stress
      __useful as a very basic introduction
        to ALL Unix flavours 
      __unusually good for its presentation of
        Unix as a cultural phenomenon 
        __Unix is like a club, with some rather ancient traditions, 
          heroes, etc  
  * Welsh, Dalheimer, Kaufman, _Running Linux_
    __perhaps the best available book on Linux
    __now in third edition 
      __advisable if you do plan
        to run your own Linux system at home some day

Online reading suggestions:

* University of Cambridge, 
  Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP)
  computing pages at 
  http://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/computing/
  __if the Unix materials are not immediately
    visible, one can look for some such link as "UNIX Help"