I still think that Direct X is the right choice for developers like us on a limited time/money budget for building 3D games. At least building parts of the game (i.e. 3D, sound, Keyboard/Joystick input, etc...). Of course that's open to debate, but there's quite a bit of support for DX both from Microsoft and book publishers. That's a big help for me trying to learn this stuff on my own. Anyway, I've started looking at the latest version of Direct X (which is 9b). Since it's been about two years since I've been serious about game programming, I've decided just to start over, get a new book, and start learing it from scratch. Here's where I'll keep info about what I learn.
DirectX 9 Related