Welcome to the world of aviation!
As far as books are concerned I recommend that you also take a look at the series called 'The Private Pilot Licence Course', written by Jeremy Pratt. The first book (PPL1) deals with flying training and is both well illustrated and written in a modern style.
I have not seen the Trevor Thom books recently, but years ago I found them to be probably the most boring, dry text books I've ever come across - hopefully they have improved (greatly) since then! Perhaps somebody who has used them recently can comment.
When you decide, remember that you can source these books elsewhere - Amazon is good and much to my surprise the Tesco web site also sells them - in fact most of my Pratt series came from there with significant savings.
I'm sure you'll enjoy your flying, you'll find that pilots tend to be a friendly bunch for the most part.