Nothing is as good as doing the actual thing but 2 books I have found to have a lot of good info and easily read is "The Complete Sailor, 2nd edition" and the "K.I.S.S. Guide to Sailing". I got used copies from Amazon and have been very happy with them.
There are a ton of great videos on YouTube. Start with some videos and books. I'd try out the hourly places where you can rent a boat with an instructor for an hour or two at a time. This is a great way to get the feel for it and see if you like it. If you like it then you could do something like a sailing club where you get access to boats but do not have to invest in a boat yourself. In a club you can learn a lot about sailing from other members as well as instructors. You can try diferent types of boats to see what you like. Once you know the type of boat you like best and you have a hang of the sailing (and know how to take care of the boat) then it's a good time to look into buying your own boat. Often people jump into buying a boat just to find out they don't know how to take care of it and damage it or they may even find out that they do not really care as much for sailing as they thought.
Best to try it out first.