FPGA getting started
welcome to the world of FPGAs. there are a number of books that you should download from here. one is the Design Warrior's Guide to FPGAs by Maxfield. and you should download the Verilog HDL book by Samir Palintkar or if you want to start with VHDL, then Circuit Design with VHDL (MIT Press) will be good.
FPGAs are alot different from microcontrollers and DSPs. you will get to know that once you start using FPGAs.
first of all you should buy a development kit. there are a number of options available like the famous Xilinx Spartan 3 Starter Kit or the Altium LiveDesign Evaluation Kit. both are priced at $99. but if you could spend a little extra bucks you should go for the Xilinx Spartan 3E Starter Kit priced at $149.
Altium DXP would be helpful if you are using the Altium LiveDesign Evaluation Kit or the Nanoboard. for third party boards (like the Xilinx boards) you will have to buy the Universal JTAG connector.
start learning Xilinx ISE and Modelsim. start from basic gates, adders, multiplexers then ALU and UART type of stuff.
have fun
i hope that helps