Think stats (http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920020745.do) is very enjoyable and very practical. You can read it online for free.

As already mentioned machine learning is a lot of statistics. There are some really good machine learning and statistics books on O Reilly Publishers. These two are a great start:

http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920028529.do

http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920034094.do?code=WKMATH...

Then last but certainly not least head on over to Kaggle.com.

They have introductory competitions which are awesome, as they are practical and you actually get involved.

Good luck!

Currently?

Fiction:

* The Hollows series by Kim Harrison: https://www.goodreads.com/series/40628-the-hollows

* Discworld series by Terry Pratchett: https://www.goodreads.com/series/40650-discworld

* Dresden FIles by Jim Butcher: https://www.goodreads.com/series/40346-the-dresden-files

* Wiz by Rick Cook: https://www.goodreads.com/series/43084-wiz

Non-Fiction:

* Programming Google App Engine with Python: http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920033219.do

* The latest additions to the Lean Series: http://shop.oreilly.com/category/series/lean.do

* Think Stats: http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920034094.do