Saying that you want to get started with electronics is kind of like saying you want to get started with computers..it's too general.
Are you interested in discrete/analog/audio stuff? Basic digital circuits? Embedded CPUs ?

Some ideas:
- Check your local library for
"Art of Electronics" and "Floyd: Electronic Devices" for some thorough theoretical treatment.
- Get a kid's electronic project kit
- Read http://www.hackaday.com/ and come up with your own ideas

I would consider Basic stamp to be cheating since you are using a very high level language- getting comfortable with 555 and 74xx ICs is probably more challenging and rewarding. If you want to get into microprocessors check out the "AVR Butterfly".