[masraum]

I did a search a while back for this very thing. I took Fortran 77 in college, and remember basic from my C-64 days. I think those two experiences scarred me for life. I've not been able to force myself to program except for a little html which I wouldn't count as programming.

The results of my search revealed 2 books, the camel (although some folks recommend the llama before the camel) and Beginning Perl by Simon Cozens. I've got the Cozens book and did start reading it, but then my hours at work ramped up to 60/week and I stopped. That one is also online for free.

http://www.perl.org/books/beginning-perl/

You may also want to check out the reviews for the camel book on Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/review/product/0596000278/ref=cm_cr_dp_all_helpful?_encoding=UTF8&coliid=&showViewpoints=1&colid=&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending