You need to read this:
Wall Street Crash of 1929 - Uncyclopedia
While amusing, it makes a good point, too. The essentials of getting into stock investing (and especially value investing) include patience, the willingness to learn, humility, courage to take the right risks, and control over your actions enough to not let your emotions make your decisions and actions for you.
The bible of value investing is a book by Benjamin Graham (founder of value investing) called The Intelligent Investor. His kinds of bargains are rare these days, so you have to take the essence of his philosophy form this book. It's not an easy read.
An easier read is One Up On Wall Street by Peter Lynch.
Another good one is You can be a stock market genius by Joel Greenblatt, and the other book I mentioned in hte first post.
You need to have a working knowledge of accounting and need to be able to read annual reports and so forth. I'll add other stuff as I think of it. Perhaps others can, too.