Digital photography

Not overly... Used my old man's film slr a bit growing up but that was a long time ago and I could use a refersher for sure so a book starting from scratch with the basics would probably be most useful.

Sorry I can't recommend a book, I did always look out for someone who knew his shit and asked.
Maybe it's different from person to person but I never liked to learn stuff like this from books.
So If I were you I'd get a grip (again) on the fundamental stuff, asking friends or using the internet -
aperture / shutter speeds / depth-of-field / exposure modes / iso / etc. -
then play around with the DSLR in manual mode until I'd have this internalised,
after that read the manual of my model, get a grip on how the thing works & how you set more advanced things.

and cheap(ish) got any sample images?

..see spooter's post, or here: http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=Pro-Optic%208mm%20f%2F3.5%20Fisheye