Sounds like you are trucking along fine...I honestly don''t know about giving advice, per se...but I''ll shoot some thoughts at you...
My suggestion for a beginner is nab up a copy of Visual Studio and start playing around in there. Grab a C# book, or a VB.NET...they hide a heck of a lot of the programming aspects which a non-compsci guy doesn''t have the background to handle, and allow you to start truly viewing your code in an object perspective. This leads to not just object oriented code, but the ability to churn out a fully encapsulated architecture...this can be done in C or whatever even, its a matter of how you approach the way one part speaks with another.
A language is just a language...I''ve picked up more languages because some boss or other decided such and such HAD to be in perl or VB or C++ or whatever than any other way...as long as you understand programming, and understand splitting up your program properly, they are all just a matter of an hour looking at some reference book and then every now and then referring back to page whatever. Learn how to PROGRAM, not just how to WRITE CODE. You can learn this in an easier language like C# or even VB, and then C++ is just a matter of reading up on how memory works in a computer.
Though honestly, if you want to program games as a beginner...take all the free courses you can in any language...but I''d shoot for C#...it is fast enough, and it is likely to become a standard eventually anyway...I personally use C++ because I like it and I feel at home, but C# is just plain easier...and it teaches you how to structure code.

on track, keep at it. I''m sure, with the right work ethic, you will achieve whatever you need. Keep banging at the examples in those C++ books, and start doing thanks like making small "tool" programs for yourself. For instance, so you have a list of email addresses, each address is on a single line, but you want a comma delimited list so that you can copy and paste it into your email message and send an email to everyone in your list. Little programs like that go a long way to helping your understanding of programming.

Check out topcoder. It''s a programming competition type thing, but competing isn''t necessary (hell, most of the time I get the emial that a new competition is being held and I totally forget by the time it comes around). They have an excellent problem set, and a wonderful submission system. This way, you''ll get a chance to see if your solutions are RIGHT.


capn_midnight | Captain Midnight | deviantArt
ACM | SIGGRAPH | Generation5

I agree with direct''s comments. I spent a couple months learning c++ and wasnt bad with it but after taking a course on java my programming got so much better. take your time learning the syntax of c++ while learning to program with something like c#