Python Essential Reference (2nd Edition)

Rating:
Summary: Well-Thumbed
Review: Usually I'm an O'Reilly snob, but this is the best Python book out there, including O'Reilly's "Programming Python". I used it when I was learning the language, and continue to rely on it as my primary reference. This book and the online documentation are all you'll need.

Rating:
Summary: If there was a "Python in a Nutshell", this would be it
Review: This book is exactly what a busy programmer needs to learn and use Python. It is concise, complete, and doesn't waste time on evangelism.

Rating:
Summary: my most frequently used python book
Review: This is a great book. About 2/3 of the book covers the python library, but is more thorough and has more and better examples than the free online python library reference. One of python's strengths is that its standard 'out of the box' library is much more comprehensive than that "other" scripting language. The other 1/3 of the book contains a brief tutorial and comprehensive language reference. This is the python book that I use the most, and unless you want tons of very long examples like some of the other python books have, this is the only one you need.