Just got an ipod, now what?

Just received a new 120G (I think) ipod classic. I am primarily interested in putting music from my own CDs onto the ipod. I will probably also periodically buy some new tunes. I may even at some later point want to put some music off of my own LPs on the ipod. At the risk of "read the manual" advice, where do I start? What do I need to consider as far as file types? Can you or would you want to mix file types? Is there a good primer on the web someone could suggest?