New Collector - Where To Start?

I am just starting out, both with stamp collecting in general and topical collecting in particular. I am interested in discovering where one begin to find information on what stamps around the world fall into the categories of topical collecting that one is focusing on. For example, if I am interested in astronomy or art/artists on stamps, what types books/websites/other resources would be most helpful?

Thank you in advance for any guidance you can provide.

Welcome, OldFaithful. I just started back up myself again a couple years ago. Disclaimer: I'm NOT a topical collector, but many here are and you'll undoubtedly receive lots and lots of great advice. I would just suggest that the American Topical Association might be a good place to start.

http://americantopicalassn.org/

If you scroll through the threads in this forum, you'll see many devoted to specific topics. Perusing those threads would be a place to start. You face two questions here, I think. The first is "What topic or topics?" Once you've decided on a topic, you'll have to decide whether to limit it by country or not. For example, I collect US Airmail stamps and covers, and any regularly US postage with an aviation theme. As far as regular US postage with an aviation theme, there are probably less than 50 stamps falling into that topical category. (I've never counted them up exactly.) I "discovered" which ones they were by getting a catalog of US stamps, and then browsing through it. Now 50 or so may not seem like a lot. But there are a lot of variations in collecting. For example, I have "plate blocks" of all of them. And the selection of First Day Covers is almost endless. I have a single 5 inch D ring binder devoted to a single aviation stamp, Scott #3783. There seem to be an endless variety of First Day Covers of this stamp (several are covers I created myself when the stamp was issued). I have another binder full of minisheets and covers devoted to the World War II commemoratives (2559,2697,2765,2838,2981). Your imagination is the only limiting factor in topical collecting. Have fun.

I think you are going to need to think how to narrow down your interests some.

Just to expand upon what TheArtfulHinger wrote regarding the ATA, they publish lists of stamps by catalogue number that they make available to their members, each list organized by topic. These are quite exhaustive and extensive. Once you make your mind up about a topic (or several), these lists are extremely useful and can be used as a check-list as you acquire stamps. If memory serves, a few of these lists are provided free to new members as an incentive to joining, and you would also receive their journal (Topical Time) which provides a large amount of topical information as well, including a listing of their by-topic study units.
You could also go over to one of the online sites such as ebay, and enter a topic into their search engine which should provide you with a goodly number of hits to look at to see both what is out there and also where the stamp market is for any particular topic.

Thank you to all for the great advice. I have been checking out the ATA website and it looks like there is a lot of very helpful stuff there. Looking forward to zeroing in on a few areas that will complement my general collecting and represent more sources of enjoyment in my newly rediscovered hobby.

Thanks again.