My dad has done this for years and recently my friends and I have started doing this ourselves as well. It's fairly common around here for graduate students to brew their own stuff at home. I don't drink but I do enjoy cooking with my stuff.
The best advice I can give you is to take very detailed records in a notebook that you won't lose about every step in your process. Even where, how, and for how long you store the yeasts etc before you begin the process. Make sure that you write down everything, everything, everything! If you make something you like you'll want to be able to repeat it. So the temperature, color changes, lightening or lack there of, all of this is important to note.
Cleanliness is also extremely important, you must clean everything multiple times before reuse. Also depending on the type of beer you are interested in making you will need different things (yeast, hops, etc) - so if there is a local brewery that also sells yeast and equipment near by that would be the best place to go for advice. Books are okay, but you'll probably find that things don't work out quite right when you start customizing the recipe. This is something that takes a lot of detailed planning and patience.