please reply ... how to learn basics ?

I am new to .net programming or programming altogether. I am very very interested in learning vb.net as I am familiar with VB6.0.
The problem is - I cant find a good way to become an advanced .net programmer. I am willing to work hard and put in time. I have tried reading books but at the end of the book(vb.net in 21 days) I am not ready to build an advanced application or understand the intrinsics of the language.
I know how to connect to a database, update and retrieve a record. But if i want to do an advanced(if i can say that) function like selecting one of the records in a list box and updating the database based upon the selected record's fields , i am at loss. there are lot of things that i want to do like writing an outlook emailer or processing text in web pages or tasks like emptying recycle bin or bringing up and playing media player and simple tasks like that.
I mean i know all those are easy tasks but i dont know how to be good with anything that comes my way. i tried reading every post here though I understood very little just so that I could learn forcefully but in vain. what do i do ????????? :( :( :(

they key is NOT learning VB..The key is learning the framework. You need to study the classes and namespaces provided by the framework adn how all this stuff works. THEN you can learn the syntax and put it together with VB/C#/ whatever.

www.dotnet247.com has some info on many of the namespaces.