There's got to be tons of great books out there, but there are lots of good websites, too. I suppose a class is only as good as the teacher you get. Check your local quality camera stores for "Nikon Guide to SLR Photography." It's supposed to be outstanding, and it's only about $10.
You should have an SLR, preferably a DSLR so you can take as many photos as you want and view them immediately. The quality just isn't there with the lesser cameras, and you won't have as direct control of the parameters. With digital, you become the darkroom, and that's huge. There's so much that can be done with Photoshop after you take the picture, you wouldn't believe it. Learning Photoshop is just as important as learning to compose the image and expose it properly.
Lots of great resources on the web:
http://photo.net/
http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech.htm
http://www.photozone.de/4Technique/index.html
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/
http://www.fredmiranda.com/