Let’s Build a Simple Interpreter, Part 18: Executing Procedure Calls
ruslanspivak.com
ruslanspivak.com
While simpler than the books I had to force myself through, there is still plenty of stuff in here that's not relevant for a first language, nor fundamental to programming languages overall.
Once you have a feedback loop to play around with, you have a better idea where you're aiming and can go look for the theory you actually need to get there.
But it's a giant leap from there to Pascal, which is why I like to recommend Forth as a stepping stone.