Since you say that you have been interested for a year, but have not taken the steps to start, I definitely would not recommending running out and snatching up a thousand dollar camera - for all you currently know, you might not like the process as much as you do the idea. I can personally recommend the Canon S3 IS as a decent entry level point and shoot with some nice manual settings for under 300 bones - I bought this camera a couple years ago, so if anyone knows a better comparable inexpensive one, by all means chime in. First thing you will want to do is get the CHDK AllBest hacked firmware and familiarize yourself with it - it lets you do a LOT with the camera that the default Canon firmware will not. As a bonus, it will not hurt your camera or replace your Canon firmware - just turn it back off and on and you are back to normal (see CHDK website).
My next camera will hopefully be a Nikon D300, but I definitely would not run out and grab one as a starter. You want something that has some nice automatic functions as well as the manual options - without this, it will be easy to get discouraged.
Also, a fun thing that will whet your appetite is to grab the aforementioned tripod, set your CHDK settings to take multiple exposures of the exact same thing and load them up in PhotoMatix (Mac/Win) or Qtpfs (Linux - I use this). HDRs can be really fun to work with and you can get some interesting pictures with the modern HDR programs (they do the leg work for the lazy.. coughmyselfcough).
Like I said, I am not a pro, just a dude who likes to take lots of pictures. Get bored, check out some of my pics I am most proud of: http://flickr.com/photos/mattezell/sets/72157601781859375/ http://flickr.com/photos/mattezell/sets/72157605580120812/
The suggestion of http://photo.net/ is a good one. I'd also recommend http://dpreview.com/ for gear and http://photosig.com/ as a place that you can see other peoples' work, critique and be critiqued.
The "National Geographic Photography Field Guide, 2nd Ed." was an amazing book that got me started in terms of understanding photography. (And it looks like it's been replaced with the "National Geographic: The Ultimate Field Guide to Photography".) The book essential is in two halves. The first half talks about the mechanics of photography... how shutter speed relates to aperture relates to film/sensor sensitivity (ISO) relates to focal length relates to distance to the subject relates to... etc. All of that is half of what I think you really need to know in terms of the mechanics. The other half is light. The second half of the book talks about a myriad of photo subjects and the approaches to photographing them, rules of photography (in terms of composition) and so forth.
As you get to know more, you'll see that your question is kind of like "How to get started with computers?" There's so much to it, it's hard to say. Perhaps your goals warrant a Digital SLR, perhaps they don't. I can tell you this, though... a good photographer with a bad camera can take better photos than a bad photographer with a good camera.
I would suggest starting with an SLR camera, even if financing restricts you to getting a film SLR camera. Add a prime lens, possibly 35mm or 50mm. There are pros and cons all over the place, but that's why you should read photo.net. :-)