COUNT SELECT statement

[LITHIA]

Hi,

I am trying to count the results you will get from my query, but it doesn't seem to let me.

$query = mysql_query("SELECT COUNT(*) FROM messages WHERE username = '".$_SESSION[username]."' AND read = '0'", $db); 

When I try doing a result on that (eg. $result = mysql_result($query, 0, 0);), it gives me a parse error:
Warning: mysql_result(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource

But if I do:

$query = mysql_query("SELECT COUNT(*) FROM messages WHERE username = '".$_SESSION[username]."'", $db); 

it allows it! Which would be ok if I didn't need to specify "read = '0'" too, but I do.

Can anyone help me here? I'm new to php and I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. If no one can help, I'll try a different, more sloppy, method.