[simplemts]

Start:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LAMP_(software_bundle) Simple: http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/web-designer/how-to-set-up-...

or simpler: http://www.wikihow.com/Create-a-LAMP-Server-Using-Ubuntu

also easy: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ApacheMySQLPHP

[frapbot]

Do you have any book recommendations I can gobble up? I prefer learning through reading a lot of books then trying them in the real world.

[calibwam]

A server stack is more than just LAMP, and what you need to learn is more than just a book covers. Try setting it up first, develop some small applications and see if you can do what you want to do.