Getting started with Illustrator cs3

Right, so ive just started at uni on an interactive media course. Ive also just got the adobe creative suite cs3, and im really really wanting to get into Illustrator. I love vector art, especially abstract stuff, and Id love to be able to start creating things like that and exploring it.

I dont really know where to start with this program though. Im very compitent with flash which I taught myself to use, but i need to learn to use Illustrator quickly, as im going to want to use it for my current unit on my course.

Does any one know of any good tutorials for getting started with the program? As I said, ive used flash a lot, so im not total noob/moron, but im not that compitent with image editing software.

Whats the best illustrator book? I took a look on amazon, seems there are quite a few, any preferences/ideas which ones the best?

Cheers for your help in advance guys :slight_smile: