I suggest heading over to alonlinetools.net and find a game session to join. Adventurer's League is set up so you bring your character around to different "tables" (all listings are for virtual [online] games, but you can find a local game shop and join a game there http://locator.wizards.com/).
More info about Adventurer's League:
http://dnd.wizards.com/playevents/organized-play
This link includes pdfs for the 5th Edition D&D Player's Handbook and Basic Rules, so no need to buy the books to play. The DM should take care of the rest.
8.3
Hey folks. So I've always wanted to try DnD but nobody I know is even into warhammer like me let alone DnD. How would I go about trying to find a way to play? Do I need to purchase books etc first? Thanks in advance to anyone that replies to this.