I'd liek to learn C++

I'm planning to get sufficient knowledge regarding c++ so I can get into the video game industry. Problem is, I'm finishing university at a very different field which is not even remotely connected to anything vidja. I'm looking for books to learn from, and I'd like to ask people's aid in my quest.

Why C++? I do not want to spend years studying others for basics. I have a good understanding and I'm pretty logical in mind. I figured I'd have to change to C++ anyways, so why not starting with it? Any recommendations?

Also, do you think there are possibilities for programmers without highschool and university degrees? I'd finish some quck half-year power courses, but I'd work it out from books and with the help of friends, mainly.

You know, what I really miss in C and C++? It's region based memory management, but I guess it is difficult for the compiler to automatically annotate the regions, because C++ doesn't have a strong enough type system. You can dump a pointer in any integer any time. That sucks a bit.