Boston,
I don't know about books but I started by reading through the wealth of knowledge right here. There are so many talented individuals you can really pick up a lot of information right from their posts. I believe the "how to" thread is still "stickied" above. That has a lot of info about through drilling, painting, epoxy, lathes, duplicators etc. etc. The list goes on.
As far as hardware, there are a few sponsors of this forum that sell it. Capecodtackle & #^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^& dot coms for instance. They both usually carry the wood you need or you can start out with simple red-cedar from Lowes or Home Depot.
I started about 10 years ago (my word it's been that long) and started out with a simple Grizzley lathe. I'm now running a Vega duplicator and a Delta Midi Lathe. In fact, just finished turning 2 dozen pencil blanks. Needed to pass time.
Poke around...the knowledge here is incredible. Better than any book as far as I'm concerned.
However, be warned...once you start, you will be addicted. I have so many lures that I made it scares me (not to mention the wife) I don't use half of them either
