There are tons of tutorials, guides and whatnot here:
http://www.tldp.org
Also, I have a very easy (to outline) 2 step course to teach you everything you'd ever want to know about linux:
1. Install DSL (Damn Small Linux) to your hard drive and build out a fully functional Gnome environment
2. Create an LFS system from your DSL installation:
http://www.linuxfromscratch.org
That's it -simple. By the time you get done with this you'll know more than most sysadmins.
If you're trying to learn this in order to get a job, I'd suggest you install either Fedora or CentOS as most of the production Linux systems out there run RedHat (in my experience). The best resource to learn this specific distribution family would be the Fedora/RedHat Bible:
http://www.amazon.com/Fedora-Red-Ent...054213-6635647