I never had a lesson in my life, and Ive been playing for about 8 years now. A lot of guitarists are self taught. The best way is to just listen to music and try to play along. You'll need to know a few basic chords to get started this way. Failing that you can do what I did and go to www.911tabs.com and there you will find thousands of guitar sheet music to all of your favorite songs. Also go out and get yourself a few guitar magazines, they have tabs you can learn from and an extensive legend section in every issue explaining how to read them. They also come with cds and some with backing tracks for you to jam along to.