If you've already become passionate about Greek, then you will make great progress: once you start reading actual lines from the Iliad it will become an addiction. Personally, I've found that Homer is one of the easier things to read. I think that is partly because it is what I most wanted to read, but also I think that the unity of the hexameter lines makes a convienent chunk of text that doesn't look so daunting as a big paragraph. You will find that many lines have a complete sense to them, and when it does run over, it is usually to the beginning of the next line, and rarely do you have to anticipate grammatical points over several lines. Plus there are the repeated epic formulas, which are sometimes entire lines, and make you feel like you're moving along really fast.
If you find that using two books at once actually makes things easier and speeds your progress, then I suppose you should stick with what works. But I know that William Annis, whose opinion is worth a great deal, recommends that you stick with one introductory book all the way through, rather than switching back and forth between books.
Once you get more advanced, you should see if you can find Chantraine's Homeric Grammar in a library. I think his explanations for the most part are very clear and simple, and I don't even read French very well.
Best of luck, N.
