In reply to Best way to become acquainted with Typefaces:
Welcome to the dark side.
Since I'm not much of a type user (I just make the stuff) I myself
can't be too helpful in terms of how to leverage particular fonts, but
what I would offer is what might be the single most useful "big secret"
of typefaces: a font's color (meaning weight), spacing and vertical
proportions* are intertwined (which means they have to be balanced**)
and where a font lies on this spectrum determines its ideal point size.
* Mostly the relative size of its x-height.
** This is why -contrary to what some will have you believe- some
fonts are better than others, and some fonts are just plain lousy.
hhp