At the same time you pick up a C++ book, go to http://www.topcoder.com/tc and start up the arena (after reading the instructions, of course). Then practice, both the language and some problems, for about 2-3 weeks. Once you are able to solve the easiest (but not always trivial) problems regularly, you will be more than ready to easily pick up a markup language like HTML or a scripting language like Python. This will help you to be more comfortable with programming in general and to get some problem solving skills. These skills are useful when you develop software because it increases your productivity and helps you to write better code. This is not the only place you can get this kind of practice from, but everything is already set up so that you can go ahead and get started. I believe things will be easier afterwards if you get these skills first. It’s also a good idea to be able to think recursively, but you can work on this later on, and when you do you can try SICP, which is a very good resource.
I hope this helps.