Sure - just want to give you a taste
of what you're getting yourself into. And FWIW, programming is kind of hard to get into and it took me a long time to get there beating my head against the wall. Heck, I started in phone support and got tired of taking the heat for bonehead moves I didn't make. So I started to read and explore programming tools.
To be a software developer you need
1) A project. Something you want to write. Doing exercises only takes you so far.
2) A language. Any language, really. You should be able to write basic programs in some language. Understand ifs, loops, basic arrays.
3) Some theory.
Allow me to point you to some lite theory reading:
[link|http://www.amazon.com/Algorithms-Data-Structures-Electrical-Engineering/dp/1584502509/sr=1-7/qid=1164685832/ref=sr_1_7/103-9975159-5352656?ie=UTF8&s=books|This one] has good reviews and seems to cover the right stuff. I haven't read it in person.
[link|http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Algorithms-Second-Thomas-Cormen/dp/0262032937/ref=cm_sylt_fullview_prod_txt_22/103-9975159-5352656/103-9975159-5352656|Cormen] is the bible in this area. But it is large, pricey, an not so approachable I think. Great reference handbook for the practicing professional though.
I rather like Sedgewick's books - he has editions for several different languages - C, C++, Pascal, Java... His exposition is good, but his coding is sloppy, there are many bugs in his examples.
I used to teach algorithm analysis from a book by [link|http://www.amazon.com/Structures-Algorithms-Addison-Wesley-Computer-Information/dp/0201000237/sr=1-1/qid=1164686185/ref=sr_1_1/103-9975159-5352656?ie=UTF8&s=books|Aho] that was pretty good.
These all cover mostly the same material.
I also used to teach the C and C++ classes at UCDenver and have a bunch of toy programming assignments if you want anything to practice on.
[link|http://www.blackbagops.net|Black Bag Operations Log]
[link|http://www.objectiveclips.com|Artificial Intelligence]
[link|http://www.badpage.info/seaside/html|Scrutinizer]