Hi, I'm also new to this, but I found the following useful (apologies for the weird formatting):

Books Web design Steve Krugman - Don't Make Me Think (and the sequel)

  Presenting information
  Edward Tuftes - http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/books_vdqi
  Highly useful books about presenting statistics and information visually

Websites Personally, I find Smashing Magazine good for articles that give you a lot of examples e.g. "50 examples of dark websites.. " I guess it's more for picking up tips and tricks.

  I find that the articles on these websites focus more on the basics.
  A List Apart - http://www.alistapart.com/
  Design Shack - http://designshack.co.uk/

Resources You might find these useful for generating ideas http://architectures.danlockton.co.uk/2010/04/10/design-with...

Photography It would be good to pick up some photography (even with a point and shoot), if only for the simple reason to provide some photos in your blog/marketing materials.

Inspiration Carbonmade.com Deviantart Flickr http://dribbble.com/ http://forrst.com/ http://lookslikegooddesign.com/

Other related topics You might also read up on User Interface Design (UX, UI..).

This quote might be useful A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. ~Antoine de Saint-Exupery