I feel the same way...I have no experience in programming at all.
Luckily, my mom (a PerlMonk) persuaded me to try learning Perl, and I
am enjoying it!
So to help me get started, my mom bought me Beginning Perl (Simon Cozens)
This book is good for learning the basics and for getting
a clear idea of how to understand Perl and how it works. I've noticed
that a lot of monks have recommended Learning Perl. I hope this one
still helps!
I can't quite grasp all the concepts yet either, but from what I've been
told, it's not something to worry about in the early stage of learning.
Good Luck!