Book recommendations? (FAQ?)

Ok, two questions:

First, I'm looking for book recommendations for learning Oracle. I understand
general db concepts from past experience with other types of databases
(Image

on MPE/iX, if that means anything to any of you, though I doubt if many of you
(if any) have any idea what I'm talking about). I've also recently
learned some
basics of how to write simple SQL queries, but I'm still mostly a beginner at
this stuff. My main focus at first is going to be learning to dig for data,
but I'd also like to learn all the stuff that every good Oracle DBA needs to
know.

My big pet peeve in computer books is introductory books that give you just
enough information to want to know more, while stopping just short of getting
into the meat of the subject. Needless to say, I really hate the "Dummies"
series. I'm not enough of a dummy for them, even when the book is on a subject
that I know nothing about. I always come out of those books with more questions
than answers.

Just to throw a wrench in the works, I have to learn SQL Server at the same
time as Oracle. This could be interesting, as I've been told that they're
similar enough to make some of the basics useful in both, but different enough
that I'm going to spend half my time trying to remember which details that I
learned were for which database.

Sams Teach Yourself SQL in 21 Days seems like it could be a pretty good
starting point. I've noticed that the books published by Oracle are popular, but I've found that technical doc published by the company that makes a
product is often better to use as a reference than a tutorial. Is that true
in this case? Anyone have any thoughts on these or other books (both for
Oracle and SQL)?

Second question: Is there an FAQ for this newsgroup? And the bonus question:
are there book recommendations in the FAQ? :)

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

                                --Richard