Question. How would you go about learning a new language? Books? Tutorials? Head first into a project?

you'll get different answers for different fields or experience level:
for web development
- tutorial for quick overview
- books for reference (a lot of them if not all :))
- master just one framework or build custom framework with best practices

Web tutorials and a good book are useful. Have a project you want to do helps. Start with Hello World and off to the races.

For developments I think off some cool project and check tutorials and Google everything I need to complete that project.

A (bigger) project is usually the only thing that works for me. If I am just doing tutorials I usually lose motivation pretty fast. I always split the project in smaller chunks and try to implement them step by step. If I do not have a project to try out new things I often also use an existing project and try to implement a new feature with that particular library/tool/framework (of course that often only makes sense if the feature is kind of isolated).

I first read a book cover to cover, then start little projects. But really people differ and you should find your way, with trial and error.

Lynda.com XD