Well, if you're really lost on this, then you're probably better of with Altium than with just about all the "hobby" eCAD software. I learned Altium by just starting to use it for a project, and it was not so terrible. My take was the opposite: I want a dry reference that is comprehensive, organized, cross-referenced, and indexed. Altium has no such thing. It does have great tutorials, though.
I know you would prefer a book, and I like those too, but no such thing exists. Altium also has a course for which they make all the materials available for free on line as PDF's. It's pretty straightforward and not intimidating at all. That will serve as a pretty thorough tutorial as well. If you must have a book, then get an iPad, and flip through the tutorial documents and wiki there. Or, print out the course PDFs and put them in a 3-ring binder. I would bet that's how they hand them out in the class.
Don't worry, despite being quite powerful, for what you want to do, it's actually easier to learn than most other eCAD systems, and once you know it, you will likely be more productive as well.