Just out of curiousity may I ask why you are choosing SUSE out of the 100's of distros available. As a newbie, I feel the bootable distros are a great tool. As for installation distros for beginners, there is Debian, Mandrake, Red Hat 9, and Ice Pack. When you are choosing books, I would not go for a distro specific book. There is a slight chance you will not like the distro and as a fact that many things are simiar, some distros have their own packages. I would also like to remind you of the built in manuals, you will spend most of your time reading them. There is a WEALTH of knowledge.
THE MAN COMMAND IS YOUR FRIEND!!! USE IT!!!