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I don't work in the field, but I've found this material to be informative: https://www.visiononline.org/certified-vision-professional-b...

Optics by Eugene Hecht is a fantastic reference to start with. It's a bit expensive, but you can find used copies if you look around a little bit.

What do you want to do with optics?

Mostly learn about and play with lasers and lens design for those lasers.

Again, though, what do you want to do with lasers? What do you want a lens for a laser to do?

Holography makes a great hobby project, by the way, and you can get started with a laser pointer (or equivalent) as your laser.