Dvoretsk's Endgame Manual is a terrible waste of time for anone rated under USCF 2000 (or FIDE 2000). This excellent book presumes that its readers have mastered all of the basic endgames and are read for an advanced course. If you are a strong player who wants to take his endgame play to master level, this is the book for you. For a relative beginner who simply wants to become competent in the endgame, it's a waste of time.
There are a lot of great chess books that only become useful when you reach a certain level. Reading them when you're not at that level is a waste of time at best, and can be positively harmful. First of all time wasted on these books is time you could have spent learning something more useful. Secondly, you can come away with the illusion that you "know" something that's really over your head. And you're unlikely to go back and "relearn" it when it can do you some good.
This is the idea behind the layout of Silman's Complete Endgame Course, where material is broken down into sections appropriate for a given skill level, so you know what to study when.
Yeah it's never too late to start playing chess. You just have to put in the work in you wan't to become really good. ;)