Personally, i see very difference between "scripting" a scripting language and "programming" a programming language ... same thing really - just that one is interpreted and one is compiled. Having said that, for the newcomer learning "programming", scripting languages are the best place to start because you learn programming concepts - without getting bogged-down in low-level nitty-gritty details right from the start.

So imho, start "programming" scripting languages (ie, Kixtart or VBS) then if you want to move to a compiled language - Visual Basic would be your best bet ... a TON of beginner books on that.