This is a different approach from: how do I turn some code I wrote in language X to language Y? Similar to transliterating a spoken language versus learning it from the ground-up. Going from Spanish to Italian, you can kindof get away with word-for-word replacement in the same order and get the gist. You can't really do that with, say, Japanese, where there are far more rules not just of grammar but of register and assembly which are nonexistent in romantic languages. In other words, you might learn some vocabulary, but you'll face a big challenge to learning the language with this approach.
Both approaches are completely valid, but you'll get further (farther?) with one than the other. You may also realize you are using the wrong language for the project in the process. For example, when I first started heavily using PERL in the mid-90's, and then switched back to C, I was really frustrated I couldn't operate with strings and regexes so recklessly like I did in PERL, but that's because I was using the wrong language (C) for something that should have stayed in PERL.
I started by picking the topic which interests me the most, where I have a lot of experience in. I searched for the most popular framework in order to not risk using something shady.
Then I implemented the rudimentary things (in my case a warp based websocket server), used the book to help me understand the things that weren't clear, started adding the features I use the most, like JSON parsing and object construction, datetime handling, adding a task with an interval timer to notify all clients periodically.
Then I went to the client side with a new project based on tungstenite.
Now I have a basic idea of what the language feels like and enough questions to read the book with motivation, knowing what it is I want to know and why the book tries to tell me about other topics which I should know about.
I'm also watching a lot of YouTube videos, specially from the really good channel "Let's get Rusty", which goes through every chapter of the book and adds some additional related information. Then also conference session with topics that could be helpful.
What does it even mean to "start from zero" if you've learned so much about programming, be it on using databases or sockets or merging downloaded map tiles.
Read the book? Yes, that should be done.
What do you consider the best way?