I'm very much in agreement with Big Pistons here. There have been a few exceptions, but mostly simulator time does more harm than good - teaching yourself to fly on a sim will just teach you wrong habits that will take a lot of time and money (and the frustration of your instructor) to rectify.
But quality time spent with the official manual for whatever you're going to learn on will most certainly not be wasted. Get to know the manual inside-out, and whenever you find things in there you don't understand go to other textbooks to understand tohse things. This will all do you huge favours.
G