Seek a tutor.
Here is the cycle if you learn from a book
-first few chords are easy
-develop poor technique
-struggle later on
-fustration
-give up
I started at around age 8, taught in school, and after a 2 years of twenty minute lessons once a week I quit. Since then I've been teaching myself, but I've always been in the company of other musicians who have shown me what I was doing wrong.
Now I'm the one teaching them how to do sweep arpeggios.
So, yeah, either get a tutor or an experienced friend.
For a few first songs you could probably be taught by a decent guitarist with no existing skill, try maybe Molly's Chambers by Kings of Leon, or Get It On by T Rex which is almost the same riff.
Just, you wouldn't ask somebody to teach you to play football from a book, or a dvd. Put it that way. The theory is easily picked up from a book, but the technique is 100% better taught in person.