Speaking from experience:
All the computer books at the local Borders won't help if you aren't driven to apply the lessons to a project.
Is there some aspect of your life (School, private, work, etc.) where you could create an application to make things easier, to keep yourself sane?
I have one, at work. It's a workbook that automates the tedium of recieving material shipments.
We run a very anal chain of custody; if it don't have a lot number, we give it one. Even the boxes of printer paper, printer ribbons, batteries. Everything has traceability.
This demands tons of labels to be created. Letter-sized laser-printed paper tags, 3 by 5 sticky labels, 2 by 4 sticky labels (and soon) 1 by 2 sticky labels.
When I was hired, it was a real shock to my brain to see how it was being done. Type all the details into an Excel worksheet, print it, and then go rekey almost all the data into the label printer station. Then the girl in the office would rekey the worksheet into SAP. I was stunned.
I went from "how in hell does a damned listbox work?" to proof of concept in 60 days, and a working version six months from my hire date. That working version has been used by everyone since February. A second-generation version is (cross your fingers) to be tested/employed during October.
The program makes everyone's life easier. Yes, it's still not a database; the girl in the office will be scanning from the sheet, instead of pulling up a file, but that's due mainly to corporate being frightened of the FDA regs on such things.
So, what "little project" could motivate you to give up sleep, and never leave the house on a weekend?