<human>: Starting this summer, I'll have approximately 1 year of doing a lot of nothing.  I'm going part time with my research due to budget constraints, so instead of getting some side job I've decided to develop (no pun intended) a skill-set: programming.

I'm quite good with hardware (I've been/still am a tech and a builder) and can troubleshoot software like an ace.  I'm moderately experienced with HTML/CSS/JS.  Overall, I'm not a complete newb to computers and can pick up tasks fairly quickly.

I really want to look into programming web applications/mobile applications.  

There is so much information out there, I was wondering if someone can reccomend a book or two to start with or some general direction? What are the "trendiest" languages right now?  What sort of projects should I start working on? What are the best methods to become proficient in programming.

I'm not looking for a "get good quick" sort of scheme.  I know to get good, I'll need to grind and put in time. I'm willing to do that. I just don't want to piss in the dark!

Can you summarize the given text in a few sentences?
<bot>: Have 1 year to get good with programming language. I want something that is versitle and applicable across various platforms. What methods/resources/projects should I look at to start off?