Newbie's Guide to D&D 3.5?

[Endarire]

Greetings, all!

Does such a thing exist, and if so, where? I don't mean D&D for Dummies nor Confessions of a Part-Time Sorceress but something community-created that's helpful to explain how the game works in practice.

[Celestia]

I find a good way to start, actually, is with the D&D video games. They not only take care of the fiddly numbers, but they simplify things, as well. You can get a general feel for how the game works and how to build characters without getting overwhelmed by having to worry about too many things. Once you get used to that, it becomes easier to read the rules and pick up the things the games left out.

[Vaern]

I'd recommend jumping into D&D Online, though it's been forever since I've logged on myself and seen what's changed in it. The single-player turn-based games are a much better adaptation of tabletop rules and mechanics, but the MMO does a well enough job of familiarizing you with the core feats and spells, and it gives you access to a community of players who all likely have experience with the tabletop game who can help you along the way. It also puts some of the weight of the dungeons on the shoulders of other players, giving you a bit of experience interacting with a party rather than controlling your entire group and making all of the decisions on your own, which may be a bit overwhelming for a newbie.
The game has enough free content that you can expect to be able to hit somewhere between 7 and 10 before you reach a point where you actually need to pay for content to advance, but by that time you should have a good idea of what's going on and the game will have served its purpose for you.

Also, do some searching on YouTube. There are a few people who do videos covering game mechanics in general and highlighting specific classes, so that can be a good place to get started.

[Endarire]

Besides handbooks (including the Player's Handbook) and handbook indeces ("indexes"), what are handy places for newbies to start reading?

My extensive experience with D&D Online (the MMORPG) has been that it varied far too greatly (for casters at least) from tabletop to be meaningful.