I find I don't learn things like this from books.
My biggest help has been just jumping in and doing it with a bit of help from Google and online tutorials.

I'm quite cocky like that where if I get asked as part of a job to do something that's outside my comfort zone I'll agree to it and that makes me have to learn how to do it fast and well.

The first few times will be 90% luck with a little bit of cheating and blagging but as long as it all works fine then I have time to go over it again and again until it's perfect and can provide updates to the client for free as I learn things that serve two purposes; making it more efficient and building a relationship with them whereby they see I'm committed to their project.

A lot of people will disagree with that method I expect, but I got where I am today by blagging most of it and learning on the fly.

That said, I'm planning to do a degree in Digital Media and Multimedia Applications this year to get a proper grounding in the field that I've learnt I can make the most money from and one that I'm interested in.
I had planned to major in Graphic Design, but after spending another year thinking about it while working it's become apparent that it would essentially be a waste of my time to spent 3 years studying that when it's something I can already do and a lot of the course (2 years of theory, drawing by hand and working with physical 3D forms), would be wasted on me.

The way I've found most productive to learn stuff is to find a small job that pays less than you would normally be willing to charge, for a client that needs something pretty basic that you can learn as you go and do it that way by jumping in at the deep end and picking it up on the fly.

Be realistic with your deadlines and allow yourself more time than you think you'll need just in case, then commit yourself to sitting in front of it. You may get to the point where you either want to cry or throw something in frustration, but take your time, Google the problem, go away have a coffee and come back to it.

This for a lot of people seems like an odd approach but when you consider the amount of information on the internet that you can access as and when you need it far faster than you can find it in a book it's well worth it in my opinion.

Good luck!

People decide they want something done without thinking about the value of it.

Case in point i was recently asked to do a major illustration for a company who were moving office and wanted me to illustrate the WC2A area of London for them, I quoted about 25% of what I thought it was worth knowing they'd have low their budget was and they still decided that it was too expensive and dropped the idea.

They later told me they wanted to pay no more than £100 ($200) for something like this that covered about 15 square miles, with all the detail of local buildings.

It sickens me sometimes just how little people value our work.