Starting an ashtanga yoga practice

Once I decided on pursuing the ashtanga yoga path, I needed to actually do the practice and understand what I was doing.  

I watched and marvelled at the youtube videos of Sri Pattabhi Jois conducting led primary and intermediate series classes.  I followed the videos of Kino MacGregor on myyogaonline and her nice little tips on her youtube channel:  http://www.youtube.com/user/KinoYoga.  I watched other ashtanga yoga videos that I could find on youtube.

I also started assembling my reading list including, for a start, the following:

Yoga Mala of Sri K. Pattabhi Jois
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (available on http://www.gutenberg.org/)
Hatha Yoga Pradipika
Bhagavad Gita

Asana Pranayama Mudra Bandha

I got three books from Amazon to help me start in my practice, as follows:

The Power of Ashtanga Yoga by Kino MacGregor
Ashtanga Yoga: Practice and Philosopy by Gregor Maehle
Ashtanga Yoga, The Practice Manual by David Swenson

I read tons of blogs and advice on starting an ashtanga yoga practice. Most helpful were the blogs of:

http://earthyogi.blogspot.de/
http://grimmly2007.blogspot.co.uk/
http://suzanneelsafty.com/

I also got myself a yoga mat and mat towel. And yes, I also read and researched on the best one and settled on the Manduka mat.  Although the iconic Black Mat is still deemed the best, I decided it may be a bit too heavy for me so I settled first for the Prolite so I could also bring it to yoga class.   I also got the Equa mat towel and hand towel. I tried them for a bit but I think just using the mat is okay for me, for now, as I do not sweat that much.  It is still a bit slippery when I sweat a bit but getting more grippy as I use it more.  To use the mat towel on top of the mat, you have to sprinkle some water on it first so you won't slip, although it makes the jumping through much smoother.  Not that I can do the jump through yet, but my attempts to do the jump through and jump back are much smoother.  Without the towel, my feet somehow always catch on the mat, and I have a little burn due to that.

I have yet to find my ashtanga yoga teacher, but that will be in a few months when I begin in Mysore.