I would encourage would-be Elisp hackers to read the info manual "An Introduction to Programming in Emacs Lisp" that is bundled with your Emacs (`C-h i` then se

I would encourage would-be Elisp hackers to read the info manual "An Introduction to Programming in Emacs Lisp" that is bundled with your Emacs (`C-h i` then select "Emacs Lisp Intro" from the Table of Contents) as it enables you to evaluate the example lisp forms in-line in addition to being a really great and pedagogical introduction to elisp.