If you do a little bit of researching and join a good
SEO forum , you wouldn't have to spend any money on books. While Karl's advise could have been a better one ,it isn't a bad one for sure. He already mentioned that the simplest way you can do it is what he advised.
He didn't say use lot of keywords in the same article. I fgot my PRs sticking to the basic and it begins with good content ,articles, using the keywords you want to optimize your webpage for. You have to remember that the keyword density should be appropriate.Try not using it more than 7-8 times in a 300 words article. Make sure you gain as many related backlinks as you can. the easiest way to do it is to submit your article in a reworded format to a high
PR article directory. You could also use social bookmarking sites. Don't waste money on
SEO books till you are convinced it can make you at least earn it's price before it's long because the algorithms are constantly changing.