This is the sort of question that frequently arises about all sorts of things. Cookware is another. Here's the deal.
Opinions about knives include a natural partisanship for those the respondent has chosen, and the discussion of virtues and liabilities ends up sounding like differences are far more important than they really are. But like discussions of the relative merits of cast iron, aluminum, coated, stainless, ply, etc., in cookware, the reality is they all work. If you use any cookware properly, it doesn't stick. If you use any knife properly, it cuts well. You can, of course, try to fry an egg in a stock pot. You can do it, but it's not fun. You can try to cut up the ingredients for a stew with a serrated bread knife. It will do it, but it won't be fun.
Survey the types of knife by function to decide what you want to have around. read up a bit on the basic traits of quality knives, which won't mean that cost or brand will be what matters.
Here's a short piece:
http://www.wikihow.com/Select-Quality-Kitchen-Knives
You probably won't need every type of knife. Don't buy something just because there is a category listed, thinking you need it. But there are some standards you will want. A chef's knife is the workhorse of the kitchen. It will do most of what the others will do, also. Get one that feels good. If you cook a lot, you'll spend a lot of time holding it.
I think it's a mistake to go out and buy an expensive knife set to begin cooking. You simply don't know what your preferences will be. If a knife is structurally well put together, and you keep it sharp, you'll be able to work with it long enough to understand what you want in a knife. If you pick up an assortment of decent knives cheap through Goodwill and yard sales, you'll find that, as time goes by, you will keep reaching for a very few of them. I have some nice knives, but I almost always reach for a large chef's knife from the flea market, a knife that was distributed by a company that placed them in restaurant kitchens and came around and changed them out for freshly sharpened. It is perhaps not the knife that holds a razor edge longest, but it's easy to sharpen (which I do anyway when I pick up a knife), and it just seems to be exactly the right size and feel for much of what I do. I also have an very small, oddly shaped knife, just a cheap thing that was probably in a cheap set. But I pick it up a lot for fine work. It's just so perfectly shaped.
So, I'd say scout around. Pick them up used. Try cheaper knives to learn how you and knives will work together. And - most importantly - learn to sharpen them well. It's all waste if they don't have a good edge of the right kind.
So far as materials, begin with stainless steel. They will be plentiful and inexpensive and easy to sharpen. If you find a carbon steel knife cheap used, try it. Personally, I don't have a single knife that I bought new. Most are quite good makers, but all are from Goodwill and flea markets. When I find another, I get to decide if I want to replace an existing or toss it back to Goodwill or eBay. Just have fun, which, for me, means not having spent so much that I don't want to change.
