Do you guys think this noobie bought some good starter material?

[AlexAltea]

Well, all I can say is that those books won't harm you. :P I guess the fact that you actually payed for something sets an extra pressure on you that will probably make you not to give up so easily. As soon as you make progress I would recommend to switch from theory to real cases, e.g. the website CrackMes.de has a nice collection of test programs to test your skills which often include nice tutorials.

Oh, btw, I have "Reversing: Secrets of Reverse Engineering". It's a great book. I haven't finished it since there was "too much text" about stuff that was not relevant for me. But I still recommend it as well as "Practical Reverse Engineering".