Thank you very much for your time. I'm going to hop on to that book ASAP and follow your advice.

However, what do you think about this book?

Accelerated C++: Practical Programming by Example

Heard its pretty good too

Also, after I finish reading the books you linked, should I move to reading

>>>>

Game Coding Complete

I've also heard its great.

What can I read or do to actually apply the knowledge from the books read to game development?

Thank you!

I haven't read Accelerated C++, so I can't comment on it. Game Coding Complete is a great book, but the "complete" title is misleading, as it does glaze over or leave out a few important aspects of game development (by the author's own admission). Still a good book though. If you want to actually get some practice, I'd say get some practice with just any regular old C++ exercises. It doesn't have to be game-specific yet if you're just starting. The best way to do that is to go to coding competition sites like TopCoder, Project Euler, or CodeEval and do their exercises. They tend to be a little math-heavy. For a beginner learning to debug, you could go to little Q&A sites like Yahoo Answers or something and attempt to fix the code other people post. Beware of those sites though - I'd advise just fixing people's code on your own and not participating in the discussions. Definitely don't pay any attention to the answers from other people because the people in those communities are straight up retarded, and incorrect answers are chosen as best on a regular basis. If you have actual questions you want correct answers to, look them up on Stackoverflow.com, which is a much more professional community. If you get to a point where you feel confident in your new skills and want guidance on making your first actual game, then Programming A Multiplayer FPS in DirectX is decent, and it uses DirectX9 which in my opinion is much easier for beginners to learn 3D graphics programming with than DX11 or OpenGL. If you're not ready for 3D yet, then Programming 2D Games is also a decent guide and also uses DirectX9.

Thank you guys, you've been of much help!

I've started with the 21 day C++ book. Then I will move on to game coding complete, and then do the exercises and help other people before moving on to dx9 3d fps book.