Rating: 
Summary: Superb reference
Review: If you're familiar with Python programming, and want a beautifully presented, concise reference, this is the book for you.If you're new to Python, but experienced with C/C++ and perl, this book is a great way to pick up the Python sytax and libraries (love that Occam syntactic indenting!) Beginners should try something like O'Reilly's "Learning Python", and pick up "Python Essential Reference" once they're familiar with the basics.
Rating:
Summary: Invaluable Reference
Review: Though it's 90% unoriginal content (it's compiled from documentation available online), this book will more than pay for itself. It has proven to me to be a solid resource for getting my first real-world Python projects done.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent - yes this is the "Essential Reference"
Review: If I could have just one Python book while writing Python on desert island, this would be the book. My copy just arrived from Amazon. First thing I noticed was the quality production (paper, type setting, layout, ...) and the font - a point or two smaller than I expected (bucking the trend to inflate books with a font I can read across the room). The Index is 45 some pages (distinguised by a grey edge), using a mix of bold and regular font to make headings and subheadings easily distinguished. The page numbers are clear in the upper left corner of each page, making it easy to fan back to the indexed page. The paper was cut to leave a perfectly smooth and even right edge, so thumbing to a desired page is quick and accurate. And for each thing I've looked up so far, the result was right on, terse, but clearly written by someone aware and experienced and just what I might need.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent all in one book reference to Python
Review: I keep this book on my in reach book shelf. An excellent concise one book reference to the Python language. That alone would be worth the price of the book but the inclusion of appendices documenting the standard library and extending and embedding Python make it a bargain.
Rating: 
Summary: You need this book if you use Python!
Review: This comprehensive reference to the Python programming language covers the core language, more than 100 modules in the standard library, and the extension building techniques used to integrate Python with programs written in C and C++. Concise, to the point, and extensively indexed, you will find this volume packed with information not previously available in any other single reference resource. A must-have for any serious programmer wanting to develop Python applications.
Rating:
Summary: A concise reference for Python programmers
Review: Python is a remarkably simple and elegant programming language that I have come to rely upon for a wide variety of programming projects. When I was approached with the notion of writing a Python reference book, I was both intrigued and challenged by the idea. First, Python has already been described in several tutorial-style introductory books. Thus, there would be little value in simply rehashing the same information in a similiar style. Second, Python is distributed with a copious amount of easily accessible online reference documentation (which exceeds 500 pages of text if printed). Because of this, a reference book faces the challenge of adding value to an existing set of high quality documentation. With that said, the Python Essential Reference represents my best effort to produce a useful reference book that is unique in its coverage of Python and its standard library of modules. First and foremost, the book is comprehensive--containing a brief introduction, a detailed language reference, documentation for more than 100 modules in the Python library, and details of the extension API used to integrate Python with C and C++ code. Second, the presentation style is concise and to the point--material is not obscured by tutorial-style examples, lessons on how to program, advocacy, apologies, or comparisons to other programming languages. Third, a wide variety of additional reference material has been added to fill gaps and clarify topics in the online Python documentation. These additions are especially evident in the treatment of network programming and operating system modules. Finally, a premium has been placed on compactness. I have taken liberty in rewording and abridging substantial portions of existing Python documentation, omitting obsolete topics, and deferring the coverage of a few special purpose Python extensions to other forthcoming Python books. As a result, the Essential Reference checks in at a reasonable 350 pages (which is certainly light enough to toss in a backpack or your carry-on luggage). Finally, as a programmer, I have primarily written this book to serve as a self-contained reference source for myself. The book includes a vast array of material drawn from the online Python documentation, a variety of other computer texts, and online manual pages. Because of this, I think that you will find the Python Essential Reference to be an indispensible resource for your future Python programming projects. I hope that you enjoy it.
Rating:
Summary: The single most useful Python book I have found
Review: This is an excellant book for the person who is acquainted with Python but needs to look up details or, especially, for someone with a good background in programming languages who wants to learn Python. Expertise in a single programming language isn't necessarily enough background - familiarity with different types of programming language and in particular with object-oriented programming is necessary.
This book packs a great deal of information into a compact format. It contains numerous tables and charts, attractively laid out and well organized. The author's explanations are lucid. It contains sufficient detail to be useful as a reference manual, but also provides an introduction to and overview of each topic. If you already know Python well and just need to look up details, and you always have access to the on-line reference manuals, you don't need this book. For anyone else, it is extremely useful.
As an experienced programmer, I found the O'Reilly introductory book "Learning Python" rather slow going. This book was just right for learning Python and continues to be useful as a reference. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: My Favorite Reference Book for Python
Review: I always have it within easy reach whenever I work with Python. It is not a tutorial like "The Python Visual QuickStart Guide", and not a book about solving specific problems in Python, like "The Python Cookbook". The value of the book derives from the fact that it is a relatively small book that nevertheless manages to be a comprehensive guide to Python. Some of my co-workers prefer to use the voluminous "Python: The Complete Reference", as their Python manual, but I just don't have time to read such a big book.
Rating:
Summary: Very helpful. Keep by your terminal while you code.
Review: This is not a book for learning python, but once you know enough to write useful scripts, it's an excellent reference to keep near your hand as you write code. Deserves the five stars! There is a tutorial introduction plus an intermediate-level description of core language features, about 100 pages long, which is useful to read for an alternate perspective into the structure of the language. The library reference section (bulk of the book, Appendix A) is well-organized and very usable. Unfortunately for the utility of this book, the online documentation at the python webpage happens to be of excellent quality. Also, there is at least one other book (Python in a Nutshell, by Alex Martelli) that covers similar ground (tutorial + reference). This makes the "Essential Reference" not quite essential: it can be replaced by browser windows pointing to the python webpage, or by other books. I have a bit of non-conventional advice: it seems to me that the casual programmer can make do with an earlier (cheaper :-) edition of the book. Most of the features of the language have been around since python 1.5.2, covered in the first edition. If you actually need to use features added later (e.g., list comprehensions, borrowed from Haskell), you can easily learn them from online sources. In any case, as far as advanced features are concerned, the latest edition is likely also to be soon outdated.
Rating:
Summary: The best Python book for experienced programmers
Review: The second edition follows the exact same style as the first, and covers everything up to Python 2.1. This is probably the best serious reference book for programmers since K&R's The C Programming Language. The book takes a no-nonsense approach to explaining the nuances of the language. If you are already familiar with practically any other serious OO language, you'll be able to pick up Python in a matter of hours from this. The bulk of the book is a handy reference to the very large list of python modules (libraries). This makes for good bathroom reading. :-) My only complaint about the second edition is that it was rewritten to directly incorporate the changes since v1.5 into the text. Since I already had the first edition, it would have been helpful if there were something as simple as change bars in the text itself for info specific to 2.0 and 2.1, although there is a summary of changes in an appendix. Overall, still the best Python reference out there.
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