Hi - just thinking about getting started home brewing - need help!! What kind of equipment is essential, etc. Good books to help get started would be helpful    

Here is the best place to start. http://www.howtobrew.com/
After that, stop back by here at the Brewtank and ask anything you'd like. Welcome aboard and good luck.

Wild

How to Brew is indeed a good site, and has a lot of useful and nice-to-know
information. However if you start brewing the way most people do, which is by
making beer from hopped malt extract (a.k.a. beer kit), there's one thing you
should remember: do not boil the extract. If you do, you're simply making extra
work that will do no good for your beer (actually it'll probably make it worse).

But don't take just my word for it, check out these sites for example:

http://www.cascadiabrew.com/exploding_the_orthodoxy.asp
http://www.annapolishomebrew.com (section "other beer kits, no-boil kits")