There is no silliness in my response, 3D Max has a great tutorial section, while Maya does not. I learned 3D Max using the tutorials included in the software because those tuts are outstanding, learning Maya and checking the tuts, they were badly lacking hence I bought 3DBuzz.com course:
Mastering MAYA:The Fundamentals & from SimplyMAYA.com I bought the Apache helicopter set. Excellent learning material.