Rating: 
Summary: Verbose, ok beginners book
Review: I have an extensive programming background. I joined a new group that used PERL and a co-worker had this book so I borrowed it. It was somewhat frustrating because of its long windedness. The book could have conveyed the same ideas in 1/2 - 2/3's the space in some cases, especially the begiiner stuff like control flow. Also, it glosses over some of the advanced topics.Even so, it did the job and I learned PERL. If you are a beginner this book should be ok. I don't think the O'Reilly PERL books are good for learning PERL, only as references. The PERL Cookbook is pretty good, with some useful examples.
Rating: 
Summary: I think that lot of people need perspective...
Review: ...when buying books. If the book says "Teach Yourself Perl in 21 days", any advanced topics that it covers is gravy. Obviously it's a beginners book. Some of the complaints I've read are just silly. "Don't buy the book because Lemay got a math formula wrong" (if you know what the right formula is, great. She's not supposed to teach you algebra too!), "don't buy the book because when you're done learning everything that the book has to offer (which is substantial) it won't turn into a super advanced book" (go buy one of those 2000 page tomes that tries to please everyone and only succeeds in breaking your back). No book can please everyone. However, if the book clearly lets you know that it's a beginners book, and you insist on complaining that that is what it is,... duh? I orginally bought this book because I had a need to write a script to connect to a db. I found out that perl could talk to dbs, so I decided that this would be a cool way to learn perl. So I tried to find a perl book that talked about connection to dbs. Unfortunately, the few books out there that talked about this assumed you were an expert in perl and had no time to teach it to you. So I realized that I needed a good, quick foundation in perl. I dusted of my perl for dummies book. Now this is a true beginners book. Way too lightweight! This book will not prepare you for perl code that you'd see in the "real world". The important part is, THIS BOOK WILL! The greatest thing that an author can do for you is give you a spoon so that you can feed yourself. This book does that. By the way, this book has a lot of topics that I haven't seen in "advanced" books. Don't think that it's a lightweight. The author does cover enough material so you can educate yourself afterwards. I probably have about 40+ technical books, and this is one of the better ones. As someone who makes a living developing web apps, I need to be able to learn new stuff QUICKLY and get projects done. This author helped me greatly in this regard.
Rating:
Summary: Simply bad math!
Review: This is a nice book for starters (those who have no experience in programming at all). I'm giving it only 3 stars because there are a few minor math errors. For example on page 50 a formula for converting Celsius to Fahrenheit is $cel * 5 /9 +32. It should be $cel * 9/5 +32. If you are serious about learning Perl get some of O'Reilly's books.
Rating:
Summary: 21 Days is more than enough
Review: This book is both an outstanding tutorial of the Perl language as well as a rather comprehensive reference book to keep on your shelf. I think I was writing productive scripts in 3 or four days and actually optimizing useful software within a week. Using this book as a reference, I've learned more about CGI than I'll need to know in the next five years. Great BOOK!
Rating:
Summary: The key to our success
Review: Without a doubt, the single best book I have ever read. I read this book 5 years ago before the Internet buzz took off. I had no programming and little computer background. This book taught me the basics of what I needed to know to become a top programmer (over 500 of my scripts and programs to date that appear all over the Web). I have read over a dozen other Perl books and this is still my favorite - easy to follow, clear examples and logical progression. It is neither overwhelming nor intimidating rather an enjoyable and educational read.
Rating: 
Summary: Not worthreading
Review: This is book is full of typos, one can easily realize after reading a couple of chapters that this book is not written by an experienced programmer, I would certainly not recommand it to any one, go buy "Teach yourself Perl in 24 hours" instead ,this is a lot more better.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent starter book
Review: This is a GREAT beginner book. Helps to have some programming experience but this book is broken down into simple sections and the examples are easy to follow and relative. At the end of chapters the quizzes helped a lot!! The "camel book" is a great reference, but this book will really get you started!
Rating: 
Summary: Good reference, even tho it's a tutorial
Review: I'm not really a tutorial person...tried it, don't like it! I like to jump right in and DO stuff...and then I get stuck! So I turn to the pile of Perl books on the floor beside me for help, and this is one of the ones that always seems to have a clear and simple answer to everyday programming challenges. It's easy to find stuff and clearly written. I often compare its solutions to those found in The Perl Black Book by Steven Holzner and between the two, usually find what I need to go forward. As a beginner Perl programmer, that's all I ask for!
Rating:
Summary: This book was all i needed to start programing perl
Review: Unlike Laura Lemay, I'm not one for words. With in 14 days with no previous experience this book had me writing perl scripts. Covers all the basics, easy to follow, ideal for beginners , unlikely to teach experienced programmers anything new. I would recommend this book to anyone new to perl. Does not cover object oriented perl although it states for v5.005.
Rating:
Summary: Workable, but challenging
Review: A key thing to keep in mind in a lot of these "teach yourself" book reviews is what the background is of that reviewer. For anyone WITH a formal or extensive software background, the book will flow easily. For those WITHOUT a structured software background, don't expect to be a programming whiz after this (or to get a lot of the nuances of the language). The book covers PERL, but not how to write good pgms. The book gets into terms and constructs, even early on, that would baffle a newbee. It also greatly disappointed me that the author DOESNT COMMENT THE CODE AS THEY RECOMMEND! Yes, it is explained in the text, but if the code was commented in the examples themselves, it would be a much better book. Web references are helpful (ie code examples are on-line). I would say it is best used by someone already with a software background looking to cross over to PERL. (BTW: workable in doses of 1hr per day/chapter, more if you really want to grasp examples and play with code on-line.)
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