Rating: 
Summary: The Camel
Review: This book-authored by the CREATOR of Perl and two other leading Perl developers-is the best Perl book there is. It does sometimes assume you have a little programming knowledge, but not about Perl in general. Besides, if you are completely new to programming, I would recommend reading Learning Perl or Perl and CGI: Visual Quickstart Guide first.
This book covers every detail, nook and cranny of Perl, is well-written (despite what some reviews may say), is full of great humor (it's almost worth the money just for the jokes!), and in general will be the only book you will ever need to use for core Perl after you learn the language.In short, if you are ever going to use Perl, buy this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Overrated...
Review: Ok this is the book on Perl. Or so people say. I don't know what they are thinking, because the book is not organized enough to be usable as a reference, and it lacks the easy progression of a good tutorial. However, it is the standard reference on Perl, and if you are serious about learning it, you should read it from cover to cover, once, hopefully never to touch it again. Perl is incredibly arcane, and carries a lot of mistakes from the past,. This book will explain each of them in detail. Read it, once, never to use those features again. There are CPAN modules to solve most problems with Perl, but this book won't tell you about them. It will, however, tell you why the exist. And it will give you an idea of how those CPAN modules work. Yes, it is badly written, yes it is hard to follow the authors enthusiasm for his own mistakes, but if you really want to know, it's here you'll find it. Sadly, this book is actually needed. You are better of with it than without it. But don't expect it to be the inspirational read people tell you it is.
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Summary: Perl from the horses's mouth or the Camel's mouth if you wil
Review: Probably not the best book for beginners but the best book for those with some experience in programming in perl or other languages. Great sense of humor too.
Rating: 
Summary: Poorly written disappointment
Review: You get the impression that Larry Wall thinks he's one clever author. But his writing style get tedious really quickly and is mostly a waste of paper. Well, I do like the regular expression section, but other than that, I would say skip this book. I recommend the Learning Perl along with the Perl Cookbook.
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Summary: Wonderful and in-depth book on Perl
Review: Hey, do you know C ??? The only book for C is "C programming Language by K&R", the same applies here. The only book for Perl is this very book. It has in-depth explanation of Perl. Say no further, this is the only bible on Perl.
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Summary: a computer language book with humor, what else can I say ?
Review: true, this book is not for everyone, if this is your first exposure to Perl go for another book, like Learning Perl, the so called Llama book, or if you're interested on programming server side web applications then almost any of the 100+ titles on web programming with perl/CGI will be fine. If you're just interested on getting your hands dirty righ away with Perl for writing a CGI script, then don't buy this book now or you we'll be complainig loudly like others have done here about how bad this book is, it's bad for their taste, that is.
You can even find some humorous paragraphs, geek humor if you want, but anyway how many programming books can you find like this one ?
Almost everything about Perl can be found on this book and you have a reference on the last pages about every Perl function, much more practical for me than online references.
I have used Perl successfully for programming general purpose scripts, network monitoring applications, XML processing backends and the all ever popular de rigeur CGI scripts, all with the knowledge gained for this book.
So if you want to use perl for more than CGI, please make room in your bookshelf ...
Rating: 
Summary: The most overrated Perl book in existence
Review: I am a programmer and web developer, so I bought this book based on a million people's recommendation. After months of trying to learn ANYTHING from it, I finally sold it back. This book is great if you have a BS/MS in computer science and really care about how a language works. However, if your goal is to learn a language to DO THINGS WITH IT, this book is so impenetrable as to be completely useless. It joins the ranks of books written by the creators of a particular language and belong in the "inexplicable cult status" section of most geeks' libraries. My main gripe is possibly that this book is completely mistitled. Had it been titled "The Guts of Perl", I would never have bought it and I would not be writing this review. As such, however, this is the last book that will teach you how to do anything with Perl. Try "Teach Yourself Perl in 21 Days" and "Perl: The Complete Reference" -- those are the two essential Perl books to have to get started and carry you along for a while.
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Summary: Does this need a review?
Review: Just buy it, if you are a perl programmer.
Rating:
Summary: Not for the weak of mind!
Review: I bought this book because it was recommended to me for learning Perl. I have never used Perl before, and started reading from the beginning. It is well written and quite readable, but I started to get lost after 60 or so pages. (Note that I do have plenty of experience in other languages, but that was not really helpful to me in deciphering the terminology in this book.) It was getting into complicated stuff without really showing how to write simple test programs, which is what I really needed. In fact, it gives rather few code examples, and those that are given are usually no more than 3 lines, so the reader doesn't get a good idea of how to put together a whole program.
However, as I said, it is quite readable, and very informative. It may be better suited to someone who already knows how to program in Perl and wants to learn more. In summary, my recommendation:
Buy this book if you:
-are fanatical about Perl and need to know everything about it
-are very smart/experienced in programming, particularly with prior experience in Perl
-know how to code in Perl already but want a handy reference to the minute details in it
Do not buy this book if you:
-are not very good/experienced at programming
-only need to know the basics
-will only be using Perl for a short time
Rating:
Summary: A vast improvement on the second edition
Review: I'd classify my self as a intermediate Perl programmer. That said, I understand the need for good books that can help Perl newbies master the real meat of Perl programming. The second edition of programming Perl had failed miserably in this regard, especially on the related topics of referencing, packages, modules and OOP. From what I've read so far in 3rd edition of Programming Perl, the authors and editors have finally made some much-needed improvements in description and examples. Other topics have been amply expanded, which is good to see; It's about time that Programming Perl has become what it has always been billed as: the Perl Bible, i.e. the book you will refer to for the rest of your natural days as a perl programmer. Until this 3rd edition, that claim was misleading hype.
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