My first suggestion is to join the AMA and join a local club - best bang for the buck. With proper instruction, you will actually go home after flying with your airplane in 1 piece. You'll also make some great friends. If you go it alone - you will crash.
My second suggestion is to get a flight simulator - such as Realflight - practice makes almost perfect.

Buy a "trainer" type airplane - high wing - designed to be stable. The bigger the better (easier to see). Go to a site like Tower Hobbies and look for "trainers". You have 3 choices - ready to fly (everything ready to go with minimal assembly and radio usually included - usually cheap components), Almost Ready to Fly (ARF) - More assembly required, and the engine/motor/radio are not included, and then KIT - total assembly required - glue it all together and cover it - requires some building skills and a lot of building equipment. My personal choice is to go with ARF and your choice of engine & radio. Whatever you decide, you will also need ground support equipment (battery chargers, engine spinner uppers, etc).

There are also some great deals right here for used equipment.

When I started, I was looking at a kit and the salesman told me it was a 30-30 kit - 30 days to build and 30 seconds to destroy - I went to option 2, Foam ARF - 3 days to assemble and 30 seconds to destroy. I went it alone and went through 3 airplanes before I could fly well enough to go home in one piece.

You will receive 600 different recommendations from 600 different people - keep it simple