Good books for new beginners to programming?

Hello,

I'm sure some of you have caught the redundancy of my words in the topic title, "new beginners." I chose to say this because I am a beginner to programming, but I am also entirely new to the scene, if you will. The last time I've had any type of programming class was HTML about 10 years ago.

Anyways, I have decided that I would like to learn some programming, and perhaps major in computer science (depending on how well it goes initially -- I was originally a bio major). I have heard there is considerable debate between which is a better beginner language: Ruby or Python, and have decided to go with Ruby. However, as I said, I am entirely new to programming, and don't know if just picking up a book on Ruby would do for me. I need to learn the basics to programming in general.

Do any of you have suggestions on where to start? I realize there are online tutorials, etc., but I'd prefer to stick with a book (unless you can swear by tutorials that will actually help me understand, and not just learn, the language). Thanks in advance.

Edited October 11, 201213 yr by ofmikeandmen