Yes, books and online resources are a good way to start to learn programming. But slightly after that, i think what's most important is to learn how to layout the concept and flow of the application you're trying to do. The next most important one is to learn how to troubleshoot and pin point the source of error or bugs. Towards the end, programming language itself will become general tools, as in programming can be done in any language, it's just the matter of getting use to the syntax and library available.

Having started my life programming by finding books and online tutorials, I have to say that tutorials are frequently better written, although less comprehensive. I think this is because books are frequently written because they need to be, but tutorials are written by enthusiasts who want to share their knowledge. And I can't stress enough how much experience is worth. Figuring out something for yourself ingrains it into your mind better than looking it up ever could. I have to admit that I do a lot less experimental programming now than I did when I first started, and it's definitely a bad thing.
There is one resource that has been overlooked in this discussion though, which is finding a mentor to help you. Forums online are great because you can ask specific questions. However, I can now say from personal experience that taking classes with knowledgeable teachers can also be useful. For example, I just took a course on Data Structures which used C++, which I knew, but most of the class didn't. So a lot of the class was focused on the C++ language. Since the professor does a lot of work in C++, she has a lot of insights into the language that you won't get from a book. For example, she teaches the language according to the guiding philosophy of C++ and teaches confusing technicalities in a way such that we as a class discover the issues and usually, how to fix them. It is a highly effective method of learning the language itself, and the experience we get on the assignments is useful for learning the standard library, which is the primary library for the language. However, we all used the course texts and online resources as supplements.
Basically, I feel that any method you can use to improve your understanding of a language is a good resource, but the first resources to tap are the free, easy to obtain resources, which in most cases is online tutorials.

~Viz