I have added a store to the Useful Links column to the left. Several highly rated and reasonably current LabView books are available there. Several are geared specifically to beginners. It is worth checking out, and any transactions go directly through Amazon.com, but help to support this site as well.
There are also some other categories in the store unrelated to LabView development, such as iPhone programming, Data Acquisition, and Electronics.
If you are looking for a LabView compatible USB data acquisition device that is fairly general purpose and 3rd party, you should check out the LabJack. There are several in the store under "Data Acquisition", but the U6 is the one I recommend.
For the my tutorial series, check out the links to the left including many blog posts and lessons to get you started.