[freescale]

As you and others have mentioned, deadlifts, squats, presses, and bench press are the most effective and time efficient. Don't waste time on bicep curls and other isolation exercises.

Good form is vital though, so get 'Starting Strength' by Mark Rippetoe. There are plenty of exercise books available, but this is the only one I know of which will spend 50 pages explaining the proper form for the squat. There's even a companion video for the book.

[eru]

I also got the "Starting Strength" book. It's very thorough on the technique of all the basic lifts (squat, bench press, deadlift, overhead press, power clean).

It doesn't they very much about programming (i.e. how to and how much to increase the weights you lift), but you can get advise on these from other sources.

[freescale]

Rippetoe has a book titled 'Practical Programming for Strength Training'. It's good as well.

[eru]

Yes, and I may even get it, now that I have probably started reaching the end of the beginner stage where a super simple program suffices. (I squat 1.5 my body weight.)