I’d advise looking through these two sites:

http://www.minecraftforum.net
http://www.minecraftwiki.net/wiki/Minecraft_Wiki

to figure out some of the basics that you don’t yet know. In particular, these:

http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/773756-beginner-guide-and-faq/
http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/138495-thread-o-links/
http://www.minecraftwiki.net/wiki/Tutorials

were very helpful. There are also tons of tutorials and ‘lets play’ for minecraft on youtube.