Rating: 
Summary: For Serious Perl Programmer
Review: This is not a book to learn Perl from unless you have a solid programming background, even though Perl is supposed to be usable by anyone. I found it a challenging read. In part, it was because the language is so radically different from C++/C/Java/etc. The rules of the language are very flexible, kinda making Perl a "There's Too Many Ways To Do It" language. I imagine debugging someone else's Perl code must be difficult. If you are solid with skills such as c/c++/UNIX shell scripting/XSL/Javascript(Expressions), you will benefit from this book. If not, you will probably get frustrated, and should probably start with an easier "Intro" type Perl book. In school I was never a big fan of Lisp/Scheme, but I respected them. Same goes for Perl. Its an awesome "glue" language that I now feel comfortable using. Although there are reams of information and examples (THANKFULLY!) in this book, the author often shows code that is not explained until later in the book. I had to read ahead far more often than I wanted. I am a big fan of buying books by the authors of technologies, because they expose most everything - simple to advanced++ - I need to know as a professional. This book falls into this category. One final note, the author has a good sense of humor, which - in an over 1000 page tome - does help make potentially drab technical praddle easier to digest!
Rating:
Summary: not for beginners
Review: This is a great book on Perl, probably the best, but it is DEFINETELY not for people just starting out. This is an extremely in-depth and convoluted book and will work best for people who have at least some programming experience and know something of Perl. If you want a good book to start out with, I recommend Learning Perl by Randal Schwartz (another O'Reilly book, of course). Happy reading. :)
Rating:
Summary: A masterpiece
Review: Outdated now, of course, with the 3rd edition long out, and Perl 6 on the way. Nevertheless absolutely essential in its time.
Rating: 
Summary: A good reference, but not for standalone usage
Review: Don't listen to those people that tell you that this is how you should start learning perl. After the first 20 pages I was extremely confused, mainly because of the discussion of classes in the very first chapter. The main problem I found with this book was that every paragraph seems to bombard you with a new subject.It's good, though, if you're the kind that focuses intensely on your reading and absorbs every, single word; but if you're like the rest of us, you'll need something easier to start out with. It's certainly a good reference, although I'd recommend the Perl Cookbook if that's all you need... For beginners, Perl from the Ground Up by Michael McMillan or Learning Perl (a bit faster paced) by Randal L. Schwartz and Tom Phoenix are the better of the bunch, but if you have a moderate programming background, this book's fine :)
Rating: 
Summary: Senseless book
Review: I bought this book, and believe me, it's a waste of money!!! I thought the book was great, but it has no sense at all. It has a total of 0 examples, it's about 1,000 pages and each command is learned separately, which has no sense at all. You cannot learn from this book, i assure you guys!!!.
Rating:
Summary: Well-written, but tries too hard to disguise Perl's flaws
Review: To be very short about it: Perl is a great language for some things (small scripts), but a bad language for other things (systems programming). In this book, Larry Wall tries very hard to convince you that Perl is the programming language for everyone -- that it does everything. It doesn't. If you read this book with the knowledge that Perl is Larry Wall's baby, you won't be fooled into thinking it's the uber-language. In particular, Wall's description of how Perl does OOP is laughable; he lambastes other languages for taking a paranoid view of data-hiding, which is a smokescreen so that you won't realize how badly Perl does OOP. It's best to read this book if you're in the middle of a programming project involving Perl. That way you'll KNOW what it does well and what it does badly. It does regular expressions exceedingly well. Its lack of data typing slows down the programmer. Larry Wall will not tell you these things; he will attack C and C++ for their deficits, but will carefully ignore Perl's. So in short, it teaches Perl very well, but the fact that it lies to the reader at a fundamental level makes me remove one star. When Larry puts out an honest fourth edition, the fifth star will return.
Rating: 
Summary: Overall, it's a disappointment
Review: Being a software engineer for 10 years, I have read many programming books. This book is surprisingly verbose and critical information is scattered all over the place. You need to read it multiple times just to gather the information from many different places. A very exhausting and frustrating exercise. Pages and pages are spent/wasted on things that are remotely related to Perl at best. There is no doubt that the authors know Perl inside out but they really overkill when they try to make the reading easy for the beginners. They end up making it more confusing instead. You will encounter many instances where the authors start to explain certain things and suddenly stop and conclude it with "more on that later." Contrasting it with good books that are to-the-point and give very revealing examples for illustration, this book is a disappointment. I have talked to a few people who also own this book. They all have the same feelings. It just doesn't match the high rating I see in the reviews.
Rating:
Summary: Gonzo Learning
Review: This book almost immediately moves to the full essence of Perl programming. Thereby violating all rules of "good writing." The start is VERY difficult to understand. But I stuck to it and read it over and over again, carefully. When I finally understood the first chapter, I understood Perl. Learning the rest was mostly details. So this "immersion" style worked, at least for me. The later editions do not begin this way, so my review applies only to the first edition.
Rating:
Summary: Step down from Leaning Perl 2nd edition
Review: This book is good neither for learning nor for reference while Learning Perl 2nd edition was well suitable for both. Too many words, too little sense which, on top of that, is well hidden. Unless you want to support authors financially, don't buy it.
Rating:
Summary: Needs a hard cover
Review: This will be my third copy of this great book. I use it so much I wear them out. Would love to see a hard cover version.
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