I can not stress this enough, read Head First PHP/MySQL. It is without a doubt the best beginner PHP/MySQL book. It focuses mainly on doing small projects that aid the laerning process, and is very comical and lively which make it really easy to read. It even gives you the capabilities to make a mini-dating site. Really cool stuff. It gave me all the knowledge I needed to make a full fledge social networking site, so that book is pretty powerful. It is also very good for reference purposes after you have finished it.