A great blog to read is from Google's Matt Cutts (he's their anti-spam guy)

www.mattcutts.com/blog


FAQ's on SEO Related Topics:

http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=204881


Here's some great tools that I recommend:

Huge assortment of web-based tools:

iWebTool

SEOChat - On left side

Smart PageRank

WebConf

Two of the best backlink tools available:

Backlink Watch

Domain-Pop


Browser based tools:

                                                                Firefox Plugins

Smart Pages plugin - Very handy tool!

SEOQuake - shows nofollow links, along with much more

Niche Watch Tool - Excellent tool for studying keywords.  As it states, "This wonderful SEO extension provides you the technical information required to beat your competitor websites in serps."

SearchStatus - Also shows nofollow links, plus much more

Alexa Sparky - Official tool for Alexa.  Displays a nice graph along your bottom task bar.  Also, helps to boost your Alexa rank (not very relevant unless you sell blog posts)