darren,
sounds to me as if you have all the necessary ingredients to make some decent money playing poker. with your bankroll, and assuming as you say, that you are a fast learner, you should be able to jump right in to the juiciest of juicy online $2/4 games. $1/2 would work as well.
if you've read and understood the books you bought, all that's left is getting used to the actual game texture for the table you are playing. i am assuming you will start out in limit games?
a couple must-haves: pokertracker
(
http://www.pokertracker.com ) and a rake back deal or two. i would stick to one site for a time until you get comfortable moving money around online. then, you can hit up all the bonus money available by site-hopping. there is also a program called playerview that many here use. i would not get that or gametime+ when first starting out. you really should beat the game soundly before getting it, though if you will be multi-tabling, it is a real plus.
as for swings, the worst swings occur in short-handed play. if you are playing one table of $2/4 or $1/2, it is pretty difficult to have a swing larger than what your bankroll will be, but swings of course do happen. if you hit a downswing to begin with of 100 big bets(BB) or more, post hands on the forumn before playing any more. i suspect you will be just fine, though.
good luck, and give us updates!
cheers!