New here

Make yourself at home and please understand that the people who share this forum look forward to sharing ideas and experiences with you, and we hope you'll do the same.  The most experienced bakers on this forum do some incredible work, but they still make mistakes.  Likewise, the novice bakers experience some wonderful successes and revelations and we truly enjoy helping them find solutions to the mysteries of what happens when flour/water/salt and yeast come together.

Welcome aboard ....

Yes, there is a lot here.  It does not have to be overwhelming though, if you approach it systematically.  You refer to yourself as a novice, so you might want to start with the basic Handbook, Lessons and some of the instructional Videos available right off the top menu bar.  It's on every page so you can't miss it.  Other than that, don't hesitate to ask questions, seek advice, and generally jump in a participate. It is a very friendly, helpful community, and you will be hard-pressed to ask a baking question that someone cannot answer. 

Again, welcome, and I look forward to seeing your baking here in the future.
OldWoodenSpoon

I agree with OldWoodenSpoon.  While there's lots here, don't be put off.  Ease into it.  Here are some more approaches:

1.)  Look at the Home page often.  Read as much as you can.  It seeps in.

2.)  Practice baking bread when you and tell us how it goes, successes and failures alike.  When all learn together.

3.)  Buy a textbook, not a cookbook, and learn from that.  Dimuzio's Bread Baking is short and starts the new baker off from the beginning and takes him/her up step by step.  Don't buy a more advanced one, yet, anyway.

4.) When you have a question, use the search function on the top left before you post it.  Many questions have already been asked and answered many times over.

Everybody's gotta start somewhere!