HFJ second edition does cover 1.5.
the "best way" to learn anything is often dependant on the individuals student's learning style. However, i think just about everyone would agree that writing code is pretty good.
start by taking some examples from some of the books, and transcribe them (by hand). odds are you'll make mistakes. by fixing those mistakes, you start to learn the syntax.
then, once it runs, start changing a few things in the code. play around with things. look at code in other examples and try and do something similar in your code.
you may want to check out the
CattleDrive we offer here. you don't have to pay to see the problems, and you can try writing them yourself.
ask questions. that's why we're here. then ask more questions.
you may want to read
this before you do ask the questions.