Fekin

I don't think a book and your own bay can take place of doing a actually going on a course.
It would be so easy to read how to do something then start doing it, but do it wrong, and you have no one there to say "hey up, that's wrong, do it like this", so when you know nothing about something, you always need a third party there to keep an eye on what your doing, which a book cannot do.

What would be better is to do a course, then have all your books and practise area in the garage, then your own jobs, kitchen bathroom etc, as experiance on the job will never be beaten by theory alone.