Myself find it easier to follow along video tutorials, as they provide a cause and effect of using certain nodes, along with visual cues. read more
There are plenty of aspects for Houdini and not as much time to go through them all. I have plenty of bookmarks of video tutorials, as well as organized Evernote notebooks - but I rely on the video tutorials more. read more
Depends on what you're looking to do. If you want a 'better' fluid simulator you could look at Realflow. There are certainly better modelers (for non-procedural things anyway). But in general, no, Houdini is very unique, and very awesome. If you can't do it in Houdini, chances are that you are the weak link, not the software. read more