Careful what you wish for. Here are a few great resources to get you started.   

http://searchenginewatch.com/resources/article.php/2156511 - The site that started it all. Their SEO articles are buried amongst the clutter and not all of it is free, but there’s some good basic stuff here.

www.highrankings.com (check out the advisor articles section for great articles and tips – Jill’s forum also attracts the top minds in the industry)

http://www.seoradio.com/ - Brad Fallon has a live weekly Internet radio show where he interviews top minds in the industry. He also has a live chat during the show and this is a good place to ask some questions. I recommend listening in to the show if you can just to get a feel for what people are talking about.

http://www.seochat.com/ - There are many beginner-level articles on this site. I’ve recently become a contributing writer and my advice is to read what interests you and take the info with a grain of salt. SEO involves lots of guesswork and many of the articles (my own included) are speculative. However, the contributors are people working in the industry and trying things out on actual sites. If you like an article and want to follow the advice therein, read the author’s bio and visit his site and some of his client’s sites to get a feel for how much he or she knows.