Which Python book?

[bowman]

Ralph Corderoy <ralph at inputplus.demon.co.uk> wrote:

>eavesdropping on the perl5-porters mailing list.  I like well written,
>terse, books.  Given all of that it sounds to me as if I should remove
>_Programming Python_ from my shopping basket and add _Python Essential
>Reference_.  Your views are sought.

I haven't seen PER, but a local bookstore has Programming Python. After
browsing through it, I elected to leave it on the shelf. I did buy Learning
Python sight unseen; it is not too bad, but tends to mention stuff that 
will be explained later. Sometimes this has to be done, but I really think
there are too many instances in the book, and they seem to indicate poor
layout. The index is lacking also. The desktop reference is literally lacking
an index, though there is one available as errata.

In retrospect, the tutorial and library reference are the documentation for
the language. If you can pick up Perl from man pages, this is all you really
need.