This won't make me very popular, but I pretty much taught myself to fly with the help of a LOT of simulator time and a Kombat Airmadillo.

http://www.kombat40.com/

I own two of these planes and more often than not, they are the ones I toss in the back of the truck when I go flying. They are ugly, somewhat heavy, but they fly stable and can take a real beating. Last weekend I planted mine doing inverted passes over the field and had her back in the air in 20 minutes.

I would recommend getting the help of an instructor but I don't want to completely rule out learning by simulator. FMS simulator is free and is a great tool for learning.

FMS sim http://n.ethz.ch/student/mmoeller/fms/index_e.html