Russian Verbs

[ugly-boy.livejournal.com]

Привет! My friend "Марисса" recently found 501 Russian Verbs in a free book bin and snagged it for me. As I flip through, I notice that it is structured differently from my 501 Verb books for French and Spanish. For starters, the verbs themselves seem to be different. Every verb has two forms like — *flips to random page* — курить / покурить [kurit' / pokurit'] (which means "to smoke, burn"). What are the different forms? Also, some say ся [sja] after the verb in parenthesis, for instance купать (ся) / выкупать (ся) [kupat' (sja) / vykupat' (sja)] which means "to bathe, give a bath (bath, go swimming). Any information would be greatly appreciated!

Also — can anyone recommend a good book that teaches basic vocab and grammar? Right now all I can do is read Cyrillic and say a *few* words.