You can do all those you mentioned above in any Linux distribution. I haven't really used any books for learning Linux, as I've just used Google to answer all my questions mostly regarding the command-line. Here are some links that I think could help you:

Link 1
Link 2

More importantly, some commands vary from distro to distro, so you should post which distribution are you planning to use.

Off-topic: NeoTerra, is it just me, or one space when posting is two spaces when posted? Posts really look spacy for me. xD