Hi Alex,
The first book I read when I started psychic development was 'Psychic Development for Beginners' by William Hewitt. It's a good book for absolute beginners.
And thanks Angela for the mention
- I also have a course that's starting in December, where I teach you (or rather, channel lessons and homework from your spirit guides, for you) one-on-one for six weeks. It is really good fun and the students have really enjoyed the first one which is finishing up soon.
As for other courses, I took the course Soul Realignment
Soul Realignment: Akashic Record certifications, Akashic Record Readings, develop intuition, intuitive development - it is very in-depth, mostly for people who want to start their own business and is more about the Akashic record than communicating with spirit guides, although a side effect of doing it for me was opening up to guides as well.