Don't neglect the help button built into the GIMP you are running!
The F1 key will get you the gimp help browser.
Using Shift-F1 gives you context sensitive help. You click shift-F1
and get a change in the cursor, then click on what you need help on.
Also, visit the main gimp documentation site, which has had a lot of work put into it:
The best book out there seems to be the book
Grokking the GIMP by Carey Bunks
The problem is, it doesn't seem to be out there
anymore, unless you can find a used copy;
it seems to be out of print (I guess I was lucky to get mine!)
But there is good news: the book is available on line at
Grokking the GIMP
so take heart dear reader, and while you are there, take a look
at the
gimp-savvy web site,
in particular check out the mouse-over action on the gimp image
on the home page.
The book Gimp: The Official Handbook has distinguished itself by getting some of the worst reviews of any technical book ever written. Go to amazon.com and do a search for "gimp" and read the reviews. They all range from terrible to bad. And the "official handbook" by the GIMP developers is the worst of them all. (Does this worry anyone the same way it does me?)
I have found the tutorials written and or edited by Carol to be straightforward and helpful, and perhaps best of all, she has brought a lot of them up to date for gimp 2, so they don't refer to some no longer existant set of menu paths. Very nice and highly recommended, better than any of the books: carol.gimp.org
Adventures in Computing / tom@mmto.org