I love these kinds of threads... oh wait... let me rephrase that ... [sarcasm]I love these kinds of threads[/sarcasm].

1) we don't know you.
2) we don't know what you're capabilities are.
3) we don't know how you learn best
4) we don't know what it is you want to do

That last one is the key... what is it you want to do in programming? Why are you learning it? What is it you want to accomplish? First off, make sure you have the basics down, and down good. Then think about what it is you want to do with your programming skills long term. If you want to get into gaming, then I'd say stop with VB now, pick up C#, learn about GDI, DirectX, and graphics, and possibly XNA. If you want to just fart around with programming as a simple side hobby, then, simply judging on the name alone, I'd go with the last book you listed. If you want to get into business development, then you might be better off with something that teaches something about database basics and SQL.

-tg