To the OP:
Whether you are going to buy individual stocks or not, you may want to know a bit about stock trading, how the market works, and to know some of the terminology. It's good to have some general knowledge.
An analogy is the following. Although I do not want to become a landlord, I still find it interesting to read about how one would screen and deal with tenants, how to protect oneself against deadbeats, the hassle of home repair, etc... Some people do not even care to know, but some do. Some landlords make good money, but without knowing what they have to do, one might just think that it is an easy way to make money.
So, for basic stock investing, a classic that I read is How to Buy Stocks by Louis C. Engel and Brendan Boyd. Mine was an old edition, and I do not know how revised editions have been updated. Still, the basics remain the same, even if you now click on a screen button like the Etrade baby instead of calling up your broker on the phone like the really old days. You will learn about different stock exchanges, the difference between preferred and common stocks, margin trades, options, etc... These are the basic things to know.
The above book teaches you nothing yet about how a stock should be valued, meaning how much one should pay for something. Well, that's a life-long lesson that everybody is still learning. But one should start with the basics first. I am sure that there are other good books, but the above was what I started with.
