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Well, I started when I was in grad school (for English) and asked one of the Hebrew teachers at the university if I could sit in on his beginners class. It was modern Hebrew (taught by an American Reform rabbi), but we learned the vowel points right from the beginning. My second year, still at the university, was taught by an Israeli, and she favored lots of speaking and the book was, like most modern Hebrew, written without vowels or other pointing.

My second year teacher told me about the local Hebrew College, and the next summer I signed up for their Ulpan -- based on the Israeli method developed for all the refugees after WW II -- speaking and writing right from the beginning, no vowel points.

After a couple of years of Ulpan, I took a linguistics course in the college -- taught in modern Hebrew, but with an emphasis on grammar: the vowel points, changes in form in various declensions and such.

I think the most fun way to start is with an Ulpan-style course. It seems like the easiest way to get your feet wet, what with the alphabet, the right-to-left reading and all!

Hebrew wasn't a spoken language for about 2,000 years, so it didn't undergo the changes a living language would have. Thus, you can read reams of Biblical Hebrew from a study of modern Hebrew. Some forms are no longer used; some are still used, but are definitely "literary." Some no one quite knows what they are!

I hope you find something appealing -- and I hope you love it as much as I do! :)