Designing is artwork, and you don't learn art from books. Learn a good graphic program like GIMP, Paint.Net or (if you want to spend a lot) Photoshop and if you have artistic talent, look at sites and see what you can do. Then look for tutorials on slicing.
Webdesign covers so many things you have to start with designing than convert than design into HTML. Start learning photoshop 1st than convert than photoshop file in HTML. On the net you can find some books on photoshop and HTML