Actually, the two most frequent recommendations I make are the Norton IB-8, which is an 8" combination coarse and fine India stone. I like this stone alot, alot for anyone who can use and wants an "oil stone." The coarse is fast enough for profiling and the fine is just fine is great, first sharpening stone. "Pulls a wire" like nobody's business. Norton sells a plastic "sharpening station"/holder to go along with it for about the same price. Each is just over $20.
The fine India is a little on the coase side for a final edge, unless all you do are things where a little bite is a good thing -- like red meat and tomatoes. Still you can not only live with it, the fine India is somethong of a food industry standard.
If you like you could add one or two Arkansas stones later, to get some polish on the knife. I follow the Norton fine India with a soft, then surgical black Arkansas. However, you could jump directly to a hard Arkansas to save money and simplify.
In fact, there's a very common gizmo called a "tri-hone" which shows just how popular a three stone system. Hall's ProEdge sells some very good, very affordable tri-hones, while Norton's are somewhat overpriced. Hall's Arkansas stones are as good or better (usually better) than Nortn's, but you can't beat Norton's manmade stones. If it were my money, I'd go for a Hall's commercial tri-hone set up with a medium man made, soft Arkansas, and a black.
However, it's going to take you a little while to build up the skill set to where you can effectively use the soft Arkansas, and quite a bit of time for the black. At about the same point where you can effectively and efficiently sharpen a knife, you can begin to polish. Until then, every stroke on a polishing stone is more likely to dull than polish
So much for a quick trip around the oilstone track.
The whole choice of stones thing depends on so many factors. If you're just starting out in hand sharpening I think it's in most people's best interest to either get a combi waterstone or start their waterstone set with a couple of good stones. The 400 and 1000 Naniwa Superstones (the other most frequent) from Tools for Working Wood.
Speaking of outlets, Norton stones at a lot of places. Good selection, good prices at Sharpening Supplies. Cutlery and More is limited, but they'll have the IB-8 and the station. The Best Things has some interesting choice and prices. Buy by price. For Arkansas stones, you just can't beat Hall's Pro Edge. Japanese Knife Supply has an extremely well selected choice of stones. Japanese Woodworker has some wonderful choices as well. Like Japanese Knife Shapener, Tools for Working Wood has a well edited selection -- and is the best Shapton Superstones with bases.
Probaly falling under the classification of too much information -- you'll eventually grow out of coarse and medium grit waterstones glued to bases, but for the meantime they provide great feedback. If the base flexes, you're pushing too hard.
BDL