i use photoshop 6 and 7 and IMO skip the books.
adobe has some wonderful tutorials built into the program as well as some great tutorials on their website. that's what i'd go with.
i also have a few links that offer hundreds of GREAT online tutorials for photoshop, ranging from very basic to very advanced. everything i could ever want to learn about PS has come from these.
i will not post the links here though, as the sites are adult in nature. the tutorials aren't, but the sites themselves are, and have links to other adult related sites.
if you would like the links to the tutorials just email me. i just don't want to post it publicly on TRT for obvious reasons.
jay@fatmaninc.com