Brave might not be the right word… I got through it, but I do wish I’d had a bit of a warm-up to it beforehand. Nothing like baptism by fire, eh? ;-)

InDesign resources I would highly recommend:
LiveDocs – seriously! Adobe employs good writers
InDesign Secrets – written by top InDesign professionals
Real World InDesign (book) – by David Blatner, an author from the above site
Lynda.com – InDesign video tuts are done by quite a few from the InDesign Secrets folks (I’m tellin’ ya, they know their stuff!). You can view sample videos for free to see if you like them.

And might I suggest my own site, Creative Curio? I’ve written a couple of beginner articles and a project walkthrough, as well as many one-offs on tips/tricks I’ve picked up. Creative Curio has also been recommended by InDesign Secrets as a great resource for beginners (that was awesome!). I would love to answer any questions about InDesign you might have! If I don’t know the answer, I’ll probably know where to find it.

(apologies for all the links!)

I’ve got another couple of book projects lined up for sometime in the new year with the same author, so I’ll see then if I can practise what I preach with this!

I’d have to say that book typesetting is the most challenging thing I’ve done in my design career so far, but it’s hugely rewarding to see the thing in print, and your name on a page.