Reddit mentions of SNMP: A Guide to Network Management

Well, most of them you will find are just like the one you have very heavy reading and slow. If you are a real glutton for punishment, the real meat of everything is spelled out in the RFC's(Request for Comments). This one is pretty short and to the point, if you can understand it, it will help you understand most other networking jargon:

-----
http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1180.txt

it is described thusly:

1. Introduction
   
   This tutorial contains only one view of the salient points of TCP/IP,
   and therefore it is the "bare bones" of TCP/IP technology.
   
   ------
   
   So, its just the nitty gritty, but most times, I find that is the best place to get started. Some of the things you will want to learn/study are the different networking layers specifcally layer2(switched/VLAN) and layer3(routed) networking. You will want to learn about SNMP and ARP as they are both very important to networking and network management. If you are interested in the nitty gritty details of how packets get pushed around the network, you will want to learn about some of the dynamic routing procotols used, such as BGP, OSPF, EIGRP, and RIP. There are others as well, but these will definitely get you started.
   
   My suggestion is this, if you can, study the RFC"s as they will give you a nuts and bolts understanding of what needs to happen. That will soften the blow going into any networking books you might run into. If you are specifically looking for networking books, you can almost never go wrong with O'reilly books. However, I always poke around on Amazon reviews before buying a book as if there is a better book, it will often be mentioned.
   
   Here are a few that adorn my bookshelf:
   
   http://www.amazon.com/TCP-Illustrated-Vol-Addison-Wesley-Professional/dp/0201633469
   
   being that I am in network mgmt, SNMP is crucial, here are some good ones:
   
   http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Guide-Snmpv3-Network-Management/dp/0130214531/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1322060915&sr=1-6
   
   http://www.amazon.com/SNMP-Management-Sidnie-M-Feit/dp/0070203598/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1322060915&sr=1-5
   
   and for the true masochist:
   
   http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-SNMP-MIBs-David-Perkins/dp/0134377087/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1322060915&sr=1-4
   
   for the routing protocols:
   
   http://www.amazon.com/Networking-2nd-Jeffrey-S-Beasley/dp/0131358383/ref=sr_1_11?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1322061108&sr=1-11
   
   Let me know if you have any specific questions and I will see if I can point you in the right direction! Good luck.