You might also try supplementing the textbooks and confuser with some readable and thought provoking materials such as "Stick & Rudder" and "Flight Without Formulae", readily available in flying shops and from Amazon etc. There's also an interesting internet book called "See How it Flies".
On Met, I found the book "Pilot's Weather" clearer and snappier in its communication than the standard textbooks, and there's a good website about Met theory run by the University of Illinois:
http://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu
At the risk of being accused of running before walking, you might have a look at some on the writing on decision-making in American books such as "Be a Better Pilot" and "CRM for single pilots". If you read these, either before or after getting the license, be prepared to deal with a certain amount of US management-consultant-style -self-improvement-what-have-we-learned-today-children-blah-speak, but on balance I think that they're worth a look.
Of course you can't learn either hand and feet skills or sound judgment from books, but they may at least set you thinking about the processses that we go through when making decisions in the cockpit, which is one of the most fascinating parts of flying.
Good luck with the course.
[ 07 October 2001: Message edited by: FNG ]