Hi there,

Learning about the inner workings of your PC would be a good way to start your path in IT, although I agree with the guys that it is not quite necessary but helpful if you know a thing or two under the hood of your machine.

Having a good set of books like the ones that you have would be helpful as well, try to look at O'Reilly books when you're waddling your toes on networking, security, programming and *nix-related subjects.

Having a daytime job and learning at the same time at your own pace can be tough at times, I myself continues to undergo the same process eventhough I've been in the IT industry for more than 6 years now and I continue to learn new things as much as my mind can digest the information. But of course, overtime/overnight office work is invevitable that can really drains the life force out of you and steals your study time after work.

For programming, well... there are actually several good programming languages to start from, you could try python or perl for starters. As cachinga suggested, try browsing www.activestate.com they have free downloaded perl and python for windows and linux. So, just in case you haven't purchase a linux distribution (slackware, redhat, suse,caldera...etc.) you can start off with your windows box, assuming that this is the current operating system of your PC.

The key in making your way into the IT world, you gotta have perseverance to learn more inspite of all the usual stumbling blocks (work, etc.) that gets in your way as you go on.

Hope this helps.