Getting started with nodes (text tutorials anywhere?)

So, so far I got around by using the old materials tab and the Blenderer, for technical reasons (weak old computer) and a bit out of habit.
I appreciate those, make no mistake one can absolutely make pretty images using the old engine, and I like how fast it is.
But I’d still like to learn more now that my new computer apparently can stomach it, and I struggle to find any tutorials that don’t focus on very specific uses of them, assume that the user is already familiar with the basics, or exclusively exist in video format. I just spent two hours figuring out how to tie a texture to a UV map, there ought to be a more efficient way!
Since I have many scenes already built for the old renderer, I’d like to still be able to use them without redoing all the materials, so if a tutorial also includes how to set nodes up for the Blender renderer, it’s better for me.
So, the question this is leading up to: can anyone recommand any tutorial to work from there? Written, if at all possible, I’ll take videos if that’s all there is but that’s really not the format I assimilate easier.
Thank you, have a nice day!

Particularly if you’re using Blender render, and you want text, and you’re not necessarily familiar with the basics, you should check out https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Blender_3D:_Noob_to_Pro . It’s out of date, but Blender Internal hasn’t changed in a long time.