Learning Maya

#1 The Art of Maya is a pretty good introduction to Maya and 3D for novices. It's a bit on the spendy side, but there are lots of nice pictures. The Visual Quickstart Guide for Maya is also a good getting-started book. I've used it to teach introductory 3D courses with great success.

The Game Artist's Guide to Maya is another great book specifically geared towards game development. That might be better than most other Maya books out there, because it will focus your learning on what's generally used to make game art. This one is one of my current favorites, because it is well-written and covers a good range of topics.

And, of course, there are the built-in help files. Good way to get started without spending any extra money beyond the Maya license.

#2 This is kind of funny because of the thread topic, but you might want to check out Learning-Maya.com. Its a pretty awesome resource. Beyond that, follow Dannys advice and check out the beginners tutorials that ship with maya. They're super simple to follow.

#3 Thanks for the feedback and links. Very helpful :)

Cheers!

#4 Stop Staring: Facial Modeling and Animation Done Right is a good book once you get your feet wet.