personally I found a lot of the books little use at all for an absolute beginner, they how high to tie a a wing for example, but they show you the process on a bare hook, not with all the other bits you\'ve tied in first, and so on for all the other techniques. SAme goes for aall the finishing techniques, spent what seems like days with me fingers doing a cats cradle all over the shop
I learnt more sat for 20mins with someone who knew what they were doing, than I did from half a dozen books and heaps of magazines. The fly tiers bible is good though as it does have plenty of patterns, to follow the basic instruction, cheapest place you\'ll find it is on Amazon
As for videos.... well, for the unoffical source of AVI & MPG instruction on just about everything, and PDF\'s of books, check out the emule or edonkey networks on the ol\' interweb and download some!
http://www.billmcilroy.freeserve.co.uk/teach/newmaterials.htm
and
http://www.danica.com/flytier/
between them will give you the basic knowledge and details of just about every fly ever devised
just been dusting my kit off for the dark winters nights. I find the one thing all the books miss out on in terms of essentials is a good sized glass of quality malt to keep you company
still got spare kit if you want to give it a go charlie