I have a book by David Caplan, "The New Option Secret", 1996, but very relevant. Lots on volatility. ISBN 1-883272-33-5. I bought it s/h of Amazon from the US recently.
I have used Interactive Brokers, but you need $10000 to open an account. You can withdraw most of the funds after opening. I like being able to place limit orders myself. Prices move very quickly, and I can't imagine trading without real time info.
I would advise you to watch the implied volatility of any stuff you are buying. Some is around 100% and above right now. Normally 30% would be high. If buying high vol options you can find that when the markets go quiet, even if you got the direction correct, you can still loose, even thoug you have lots of time value left. The price of out of the money calls went up even as markets fell, moving further away. The problem with writing naked options at times like this, is that the Vol goes higher still, and you are left with massive margin calls. The out of the money calls have their prices marked up too. In the money calls are too expensive to get good leverage.
I am reading the book and sitting it out until things go quiet.