Heres my knowledge list, this is how i learned, and this is how a became a great programmer.

Now it is very important for me to say, that programming is 1/4 reading a book, and 3/4 personal experimentation. Also, you gotta kinda have a love for watching complex things work. This should yield a good programmer.

List of things to learn, in order, and how much time you should spend with each one:

1) Qbasic: 1-2 years
Take this time to learn the basics of programming,
and graphics. Try to write a small game.

2) VB and C++: 2-3 years
Here you will start to get into the hardcore of what
its like to be a programmer. Not for malicious use,
but do try to write virii, and trojans for your personal
learning.

3) Assembler and Java and HTML: 2 years
By now you should be able to figure out what to
do with these here. Write something complex...

4) Whatever you want after this, by now you should have a very strong understanding of programming concepts, and any other language you learn should immediately start flowing from your fingertips.