Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Book
Review: A very good book for learning... especially useful is the way that chapter 1 summarizes the whole book... after I struggled through chapter 1, I only needed to reference bits of the rest of the book to fill in a few blank areas.
Rating:
Summary: A very good introduction
Review: As a dinosaur who hasn't programmed since the Fortran days of the '70's, I fail to understand the comments below criticising the book's accessibility, and especially the first chapter.I found the book to be one of the best introductions to a programming language I have ever read. I especially liked the first chapter that took you line by line through the construction of a sample program. Each concept was carefully explained in the context of those that went before. It doesn't get better than that.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book!
Review: This is an excellent book for first time perl programmers. If you really want learn perl, buy this book but I highly reccommend buying Perl Programing or other great perl books from O'Reilly.
Rating:
Summary: Grab it! Perfect for beginning Perl!
Review: If you're looking to learn Perl, grab this book and later "Programming Perl". Learn the basics of writing Perl programs, then use it like a dictionary. This is one truly amazing book! It steps you through most of the commonly-used areas of Perl easily and clearly.
Rating:
Summary: Superb book! Recomending.
Review: Very good book with real-world examples. Every begining Perl programer must to read it. I would describe it as "Perl jumpstart" book. Good organized and covers many aspects of Perl.
Rating: 
Summary: Save your money
Review: This book is typical of O'Reilly books, in that in the first chapter, they attempt to summarize the entire book. For a non-Perl programmer, attempting to learn the language, it will leave you frustrated and confused. The book is poorly organized, poorly written, and the author tends to ramble when he should be quantifying examples he's given. There are clearly better books available for learning Perl, and your money is better spent elsewhere.
Rating:
Summary: Don't look at another Perl book until you have read this..
Review: This is it. The big cahuna of introductory Perl. This book has it all - great organization, a fresh writing style, examples, and an introduction from Grand Master of Perl himself, Larry Wall. Don't even buy or look at another Perl book if you are a novice and want to begin learning Perl.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent read but don't read the first chapter first!
Review: First time I picked up this book I was discouraged deeply, only to discover chapter two was easy and right on along learning curve. Chapter 1 looked hostile and condescending even for a programmer. Not all of us have IQ of 140 or so. Mortals should start at Ch. 2. Otherwise I would give it a 5/5 stars.
Rating:
Summary: Great overview of the language's features
Review: If Perl is your first programming language, I think this book may be difficult to follow. It assumes that you already know C, C++ or Pascal. It also makes alot of references to UNIX, so if you're not familiar with UNIX, you won't know what it's talking about in those sections. It does not really explain basic programming logic like a beginning programming texbook would. It simply lays out the basic features of the language and makes some comparisons to similar features in the other languages. If you already know a language and just want to know to do the same thing in Perl, this is the book.
Rating:
Summary: Good book for beginners
Review: This is a good place to start if you do not know Perl. This is not a comprehensive reference to Perl.
| 
