Following which, I recommend trying to build from scratch simple webapps that uses 3rd party api's like Twitter or Flickr.
The goto book is http://www.amazon.com/Definitive-Guide-Django-Development-Ri...
For some reason, a lot of the django books are outdated.
As for the versions, I would say go with Python2.7/Django1.4
I wrote a short checklist that might help you in your progress!
http://pragmaticstartup.wordpress.com/2012/08/25/what-every-...