I want to learn HTML5, what's the best way to go about this?
What are some good resources, and what topics should I cover to begin with? I have no previous HTML experience btw.
The canvas element, Timed media playback, Offline storage database (offline web applications), Document editing, Drag-and-drop, Cross-document messaging, Browser history management, MIME type and protocol handler registration, and Microdata.
Nobody would go and learn all of them unless they needed them. Expert canvas users may know nothing about browser history management, and its possibly they will never need to.
Think of somehing more specific, like some sort of thing you want to do (make a good Canvas apps, make a good app that uses WebSQL, have a good reason to make use of Web Storage, etc).
In short, there isn't a reason to touch any specific part of HTML5 until you have a specific need to do so.
There are books that gloss over each of these topics like HTML5: Up and Running or websites like http://diveintohtml5.info. If you are looking to increase your general knowledge of whats out there and what can be done with it, I'd look through those.
I'm looking into making webapps (not sure exactly what yet)
is that also too wide of a topic itself?
Like the above poster says, theres simply too much to really just take it all in (not that you couldn't, it's just... if you really wanna learn, you need to start small).
Think of a specific web app, then try to learn all the ways you can use various pieces of HTML5 to build it.
The DiveIntoHtml5 link that both of us provided is an excellent place to start, once you have an area of study in mind.
While it lasts...