The best piece of advice I would say is use softsynths (lots of them) to learn sound design. Download free ones, use them in trial mode, whatever. It's more effective than learning on hardware, because most people can only get their hands on X number of hardware instruments at any time. You will learn sound design faster and have better retention if you have dozens of different synths, with a variety of user interfaces (and even synthesis methods) at your disposal. The mouse and keyboard just gets you from point A to B much faster, and the large computer screen offers visualization of the signal and other features that are difficult to achieve with hardware, and its easier to drag and drop things around than to switch back and forth between hardware and software, or limit yourself to whatever display is on the hardware itself.
Tons of good info on the web and youtube, no need to buy books unless you want to; if you do, you might want check out some of the books by Simon Cann. I also have a copy of Welsh's Synthesizer Cookbook that I really want to read cover to cover one of these days, because each "recipe" describes the fundamentals that go into each category of sound, so it makes for a nice reference without overloading you with theory.
Also keep in mind that in many ways, the Virus does things differently than many other VA synths. It's quirks are part of its charm but you'll appreciate quirks more after you've worked with a few dozen different synths. Not that "different" is bad (I learned sound design on a Kawai K5, an incredibly different Additive synth that is considered one of the most difficult to program synths ever created. Even though very few synths are similar, I still learned a lot that carries forward today).
http://www.synthesizer-cookbook.com/
https://noisesculpture.com/