I suggest to buy an evaluation board which contains a micro controller and some other components which you may need. you can program the micro controller without worrying about hardware malfunctions.
after buying the board you'd better run sample codes which exists in the CD of board. then change some part of these code and see the results.
then you can write codes by yourself.
hi.first of all you must learn C .then you can watch some videos from youtube,
for instance Lectures of UNC Charlotte Embedded Systems course (ECGR4101/5101) taught by James conrad.
it is obvious than one hour video is not a replacement for hundred pages of a book,but it helps you to get the concepts.