Rating: 
Summary: Good book, but lots of patience required
Review: Randal Schwartz's "Learning Perl" is an excellent book for those who want to learn the Perl language. "Learning Perl" covers the basics of programming in Perl through 17 chapters, each averaging 20 or so pages with practice exercises at the end of each chapter. While Schwartz claims a novice could learn from the book, I had to re-read several passages and chapters before I fully comprehended his ideas. Tinkering with some Perl code and writing some experimental programs with the book in hand is a must.I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is serious about learning Perl and who has some experience in Unix and/or another programming language. I was a complete novice to both Unix and the basic concepts of programming when I bought the book. It took me the whole night to figure out how to execute a simple "Hello, world!" program on Mac OS X. After nailing down the basics of Unix through trial and error, however, I was able to execute more programs flawlessly. Assess your abilities and your commitment honestly before making the purchase. Good luck!
Rating: 
Summary: Finally, a programming book I can learn from!!
Review: For the last couple years I have aimlessly wandered from one perl book to another and gotten nowhere. Not being a programmer many of the books were just too hard to follow or intoduced too many concepts at one time in a way that made absolutlely no sense. But today, I picked up the llama book and that all changed. After only a couple hours, I had already written some useful (very simple) programs without, and I repeat without having to refer back to the book. Not only that, I cannot wait to read the next chapter, I am totally jazzed. Thank you Randal L. Schwartz.
Rating:
Summary: A Book for the reluctant C, Java programmers
Review: In addition to being a great book for $perl beginners, i think this is a great book for programmers who are horrified by perl's way of doing things but are forced to learn it to get things done. I tried to teach myself perl several time using several different books but this was the only book that made sense to me and in spite of all its vices I have started using and liking perl. The book covers all the basics except reference (sort of pointers in perl). If you are a beginner, i recommend this book before you read Programming Perl by Larry Wall et al.
Rating:
Summary: Superb! I nearly highlighted the whole thing.
Review: I have a Comp Sci degree and have worked with scripting languages as well as Fortran, Java, and C++. I got *some* Perl experience two years ago and just started using it again. I found this book not only informative but entertaining as well. It is very readable; I can just sit and read this book without having to be at a computer, although most chapters had me itching to try something out. I was amazed at the outrageous things one can do with this handy language. This is what I would expect from a third edition: it is well-conceived and the examples are meaningful and comprehensive, i.e., they cover many "what if" situations that would normally occur as afterthoughts. Most of the annoying humor and cuteness that ruins many IT books has been relegated to the footnotes that appear on every page. The footnotes are dense with valuable fine points. Every page is crammed with interesting information; it's a gold mine. The authors *do* give away the store. There are fun little exercises at the end of each chapter, with the answers in Appendix A. (If you plan to use this as a class text, the exercises probably won't suffice; you may want to write more rigorous ones --and more of them.) Covers Perl command-line commands and the most common Perl modules (of the 3500+ that are out there now). It clarifies the important distinction between Unix "globs" and regular expressions, and shows how to make your programs work with pipes. It does not cover everything (for example, I found no mention of @INC); however, the authors repeatedly refer to "perldoc" to get you in the habit of using it. The index is excellent. It's also a must-have reference for the impatient beginner who needs to get something done fast. For my level of understanding, this was a dramatically greater value than the Perl Cookbook. It's worth more than I paid for it --an excellent value.
Rating:
Summary: Very Intuitive!
Review: I found this book to be a very easy read. The exercises at the end of the chapters tie in well with each lesson. A good start for learning Perl.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: (This review refers to the 2nd edition of Learning Perl) An excellent introductory text to Perl. Skip the section in the first chapter entitled "A Stroll Through Perl" which is not useful at all and unnecessarily complicated and confusing. You can get up and running after the first few chapters and refer to the rest as you come up with specific questions. Read this book in addition to "Programming Perl" and "Perl Cookbook" and you're all set.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Book, Bad Revision
Review: I gave the 2nd edition of this book 5 stars for its readability and concise coverage of the Perl basics. Unfortunately, the 3rd edition adds very little and takes away many of the best parts of the 2nd edition. The chapter on report formatting was completely removed in this edition. I guess we will have to call it Pel instead of Perl. (The "r" in the name stands for "reporting," but reporting is no longer covered at all in this book). The second edition also had an excellent chapter on CGI programming with Perl. This was also sent to the dumpster. Another casualty was chapter one which previously contained a well crafted introduction to the language called a "stroll through Perl." It has been replaced by a boring and traditional introduction chapter. So, what were the additions that warranted the creation of a new edition in the first place? The chapter on regular expressions was spilt into three chapters. A good idea, but the coverage is almost identical to that of the previous edition. A little more explanation is added in various chapters here and there, which is good. But, this edition also contains many more footnotes, which is bad! The authors seem obsessed with footnoting the most obscure and bizarre details in footnotes, and there are footnotes on almost every page. (Of course you don't have to read them, but like looking at a bad car accident, I just can't resist). This is still a good tutorial on Perl, but the second edition is so much better I would recommend buying it instead of the third edition. Unfortunately, newer does not always mean better.
Rating:
Summary: From a programming novice, this book is an outstanding tool
Review: As a non-programmer, I purchased this book to assist me in my duties as a systems administrator. After reading the book cover-to-cover (reading some chapters twice, to make up for my lack of programming experience), I was able to gain a solid understanding of the Perl programming language. Though this book will not make you an expert on the subject, it will give you enough knowledge to begin using Perl for many tasks, and can be a stepping stone to more advanced Perl books (such as O'Reilly's 'Learning Perl', considered by many to be the unofficial bible of the language). For non-programmers like myself, this book is an outstanding learning tool; within a matter of just a few weeks, this book can help you become well-versed in the basics of Perl.
Rating:
Summary: Not for those new to programming
Review: While this may be an excellent primer for programmers who are new to Perl (I don't know), it's not the best place to start for those who are entirely new to programming, like me. This book assumes you have some familiarity with programming. I found the Visual Quickstart guide much easier to pick up from scratch.
Rating:
Summary: The most entertaining education a geek can get.
Review: There's a LOT of bad computer books. There are many good ones. There are a few that are downright fun. If you're not sure you want to learn Perl, get this book. You'll have fun and by the time it's over, you'll have learned it anyway.
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