For Drupal beginners, and "especially" if, like me, one has a firm grasp of MVC or MVP concepts, I would recommend buying or borrowing "Pro Drupal 7 Development", Third Edition.
As for pitfalls:
- Learn the menu (routing) system
- Embrace the Form API
- While some have embraced Zen, I have personally embraced Omega
- As one stated earlier, Views are your friend. Model and create as many "Content Types" as needed, then use Views to display them.
- CTools is great, Views is the best sauce on planet Drupal, but tread lightly around the Panels and Page Manager interface. :)
I hope that helps.
