This is what I did:
Took free skeleton tutorial here, Read the skinning info in Maya's help, asked a few questions here and experimented a lot...
I still have no idea how to create rigs but that's because I got tired of the project I was doing...
I can't say my knowledge of this area is more then totally basic but it's enough for a start. I suggest you try that before buying a book you're not sure you're going to need (anytime soon at least)
Good luck
Benny
When in doubt, delete history and freeze transformations.
My latest snake game
(Requires DirectX9 SDK and Framework)