How to make posts go directly to category pages (bypassing homepage)

Is this possible? Maybe a plug-in that gives the ability to assign a post to a Category page without it appearing on the homepage? Or failing that, perhaps a way to totally bypass the homepage and go to one of the category pages directly?
I’m a dolt about PHP, just doodling around with template pages and css. So I need pretty basic help – if there’s a PHP script to add, or if I can grab one from a category page and stick it on the index.php page (and whatever else I’d need to do)…
TIA!
Averill Ring