Hey Murph

Its not all bad. I saw that book today too along with another called Using Maya and Photoshop for Advertising or something like that. Its pretty good.

As for rigging, if you want a safe start to it I recommend Alias's own book on Character rigging, it guides you thru the basics of it,
it gets a bit frustrating when you just start it as you start to learn another side of Maya!!! Almost like lifting the bonnet in someways cos it gets more techy.

As for my explanation above, check this link out it has some diagrams and then see me in the morning if it hasn't cleared up. https://optidigit.com/stevens/

My wife urged me to upgrade!! I nearly died!!!

All the best
_J