After skimming through the #Django books, I feel that I don't need to read a bunch more of them for now. Rather, I need to nail down the database model for the site I want to build, then piece it together from the various, relevant chapters.
The books have lots of info about setting up and dealing with user registration, permissions, email, and search, but most of that can come later (after the main site is setup and opened to additional users).