If you're new to Cisco and networking, and/or need a basic understanding of the whole wide spectrum, I would recommend this book as the first one you read. I was the Technical Editor on this book and I found it very well written. It will give you a pretty good idea of what this is all about, and what you can expect to become an expert in when you start studying for Cisco certifications.

This is a great study guide to prepare yourself for the exam. Unfortunately I cannot tell you how well it covers switching issues like VLAN and STP because it was not released when I was getting ready for the test, so I had to read his study guide for the CCNA 1.0 exam. Read another book besides this one, so you can get different input, and be well prepared for the exam.

This book takes you through all the objectives you need to know for the exam. I found this a little too technical sometimes with not enough examples, so I would recommend to read at least one additional book besides this one.

Do yourself a favor and get a hold on at least one 2500 series Cisco router; Two or Three would be even better. It is very important that you get some hands-on experience with the devices from the start. That way you can also tell when the examples shown in books or other documents doesn't work, and get some more practice troubleshooting the problem.

When you think you're ready for the test, I would recommend that you get the Cisco tests from Boson, and purchase one of the CCNA 2.0 tests. They are only $29.95 each, which is very cheap compared to many other practise tests.