Lens Length?

[Glassjaw]

Pretty much new to photography, and I have a lot of questions but I'll just ask this; what does the lense length effect? Also, if anyone can point me to a beginner to photography guide that'd be great.

 

[markc]

Here's a couple cool pages on focal length:
http://www.hash.com/users/jsherwood/tutes/focal/focal.html
http://www.ctlow.ca/Photo/FocalLength.html

There should be threads elsewhere on the forum for links and such for beginners. I'm sure someone will point the way, or poke around a bit.