For cutting porcelain or ceramic tile, standard practice is to use:
- A wet saw with a diamond blade
- A manual tile cutter (a carbide wheel slides along a rail to score the tile, then you snap on the line.
- Tile nippers for complex shapes
You can use a diamond blade with a hacksaw to cut holes, but it won't be very efficient.
If you have mostly straight lines, you can get away with a decent manual cutter and perhaps a pair of nippers. A wet saw makes the job go faster, but is not necessary.
As far as books, I highly recommend The Complete Book of Woodworking: http://www.amazon.com/The-Complete-Book-Woodworking-Detailed/dp/1890621366/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1335885982&sr=8-1. It's easy to follow even for the uninitiated. It goes over the major tools, what they are used for, and has excellent instructions on some starter and intermediate projects. There are even some workbench projects toward the end, one of which is made only from plywood and 2x4 lumber. I made it with a jigsaw and really uneven cuts, and it's held together well for about a year (it's usable for everything except hand planing). I'm also a software engineer by trade and learn well from books, so I spent a good few months obsessing over this book in my apartment before buying a house and really getting started.
For video instruction, The Wood Whisperer is one of my favorites; he gets into what tools are used for, how to set them up and tune them, and has some videos dedicated to safety. He's also very technical and comes from a science background, so the engineer in me relates well with him. He doesn't leave out many details. Fine Woodworking is also very good and for $5 a month you can get access to a ton of video content.
http://www.thewoodwhisperer.com
http://www.finewoodworking.com
SawmillCreek and WoodworkingTalk are nice forums to search through for tips and discussions about what tools are best used for what projects.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org
http://www.woodworkingtalk.com
Most of these will discuss fine woodworking, furniture making, and detailed joinery, which you may or may not be interested in. All of them, however, will give you information you want about tool usage. It may be more detail than what you're interested in for the projects you describe, but if anything you'll be over-prepared.
Best Answer
From a "size - only" standpoint two critical dimensions of a bandsaw are the throat capacity and the maximum cutting height.
Larger, more expensive bandsaws will generally have better blade guides, a more powerful motor, more table and fence adjustments, and can hold wider range of blade widths. Adjustable speed is nice if you intend to cut metal, as slowing the speed will increase blade life.