His _Compiler Construction_ book (http://www-old.oberon.ethz.ch/WirthPubl/CBEAll.pdf) is a good "keep it simple, hit the ground running" intro to recursive-descent parsing, compilers, virtual machines, etc., as well.
See also:
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1822515 (first)
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1820858 (parsing)
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1608752 (good thread)
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1642345 (another good thread)
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=835020 (lots of good resounces!)
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=704957 (yet another good thread)
That should keep you busy for a while. :)
It basically explains everything in 10 pages. Quite an amazing paper.