Recommended Books/Resources for Python

[TegSkywalker]

Hey all. Sorry if this sounds like a stupid question (new and want to learn
Python) but do any of you have any suggested books or readings on how to
learn Phython? I saw an O'Reilly book over at Amazon.com
(http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1565924649) and wasn't 100% sure if
this was a good source or not.

Here is another question. I see that Python is a multisource language
spanning different OSes like Windows, Linux, and Mactintosh like how Java
aims to be. If I were going to program something like an interactive CD and
wanted to give it to people to check out, would they have to have a Python
interpreter installed on their machine or will it run like a normal Windows
.exe file for example?

Any help is appreciated. Thanks for your time! :)