Help a chess noob

[David Ottosen]

The Seirawan/Silman series of "Winning Ches X" books are very good for starting to study. Easy to read, fairly well laid out and written, and good.

"My System" is a bit more advanced and I'd probably hold off for a while. If you want an introductory version of the same thing, pick up "Weapons of chess" by Pandolfini.

My personal favorite books are:

60 memorable games, by Fischer (original, not the bastard Nunn version)
Road to chess improvement, by Yermolinksy
Grandmaster Achievement, by Polugaevsky
My great predecessors (all 5 volumes), by Kasparov