[zodiac]

> Any recommendation for an intro book I could grab to read in my spare time?

Unfortunately I think the field suffers from a lack of such books.

1. You could try Steven Pinker's "The Language Instinct", although it's a general-audience book that doesn't really try to teach you linguistics proper

2. The first textbook I used was https://linguistics.osu.edu/research/pubs/lang-files and it's pretty good. However, it's quite hard to obtain.

Edit:

3. If you just want to look at syntax http://web.mit.edu/norvin/www/24.902/24902.html is advanced but good