[Admin]

I must disagree, Logician. PHP is commonly associated with MySQL, but it is just another way -- out of many -- to store data you manipulate with PHP. It is also not really integrated with Javascript, designing or security. (although security should always be in mind when coding, in any language)

If you start with the basics, PHP is really not a hard lanuage to learn, compared to Perl for example.
A book is always good and helpful, but also not necessary. I learned PHP by reading code I found on sites, and especially vBulletin. Then again, I had some background in C++ so it might not work for you.
But I think buying a book is the easiest, if not best, way to learn a language. Either that or a course, choose whatever fits you more.
A book, unlike the manual, will most imporantly teach you techniques and little secrets you might never find in the PHP site. This is why it's also important to read tutorials.
Learning and knowing the syntax is probably the easier thing when learning a new language. It is much harder to use it wisely and efficiently.

Just don't expect to write complex scripts overnight. Start with small things, then make your progress, slowly but surely.