It covers more than the title implies, and serves as a good basic introduction and easy to reference resource.

The best way to learn is to build and publish a small website. Keep it simple at first; you can always come back and add more complexity.

Alternately, look at Creating a Website, the Missing Manual: http://www.amazon.com/Creating-Website-Missing-Manuals-English/dp/144930172X/
I haven’t seen this, but recommend it on the strength of other titles in the series.

If you have decided to use Dreamweaver, the tool itself involves a learning curve, so I would start instead with Dreamweaver: The Missing Manual: http://www.amazon.com/Dreamweaver-CS5-David-Sawyer-McFarland/dp/1449381812

Thanks for the great articles, I stumbled across them at just the right time. I am interested in learning how to create and design my own sites but have run into a bit of a roadblock. I am starting at zero with basically no web design, etc. knowledge and the problem is not lack of material but an avalanche of how-to information that leaves me stranded with no idea where to actually start the learning process. Do you have a recommendation of where to start (books, tutorials and the like) that could keep me from feeling buried alive in information that may, or more likely, may not be practical?