free readers :
- http://openbookproject.net/electricCircuits/ -
- Loading... - (they have nice kits too)
furthermore go through the tutorial section of the Arduino.cc site as there are many simple projects where you can learn from a lot. Change the code to see what happens.
Any Arduino starter kit will do to get started. If budget is tight you may disect toys from a 2nd hand shop to get motors and leds etc.
What kind of projects are you thinking of?