openings

so i'm trying to teach myself to play the amazing game of chess properly. my books (the right way to play chess by david pritchard and beginners guide to winning chess by fred reinfeld) advise me, as a novice, to learn the italian game. also, because they're played so often against me i've started to mug up on the ruy lopez and sicilian. my question is this, which other openings are essential in the early repertoire of an aspiring newbie?

The French + The Retti + Nimzo

The book that helped me the most when really starting was Irving Chernev's "Logical Chess Move By Move".

The Italian Game is good to start with. You may find that few black players allow this and play the Two Knights as would I if played 2....Nc6 after 2 Nf3. But more to the point you may find fewer people play 1...e5 after 1 e4 then e4 players would like.

Learning 1e4 openings means you will have to do a lot of work planning what to do against the Sicilian, blacks best defence to e4....which begs the question of what to play with black :-) . A good defence for the club player (WITH LITTLE TIME TO STUDY) may be the centre counter (Scandinavian) 1e4 d5 2 de Nf6 (As opposed to Qxd5)

So. What to play against 1d4 ? To cut study time the Kings Indian will prove good against the English (1 c4) and Reti (1 Nf3) as well.