After using books that just throw syntax at you, I really enjoyed reading Perl How To Program by Deitel. It went beyond the normal function-example, function-example routine and encorporated relivant computer science background. I felt like I was actually learning about programming; concepts that I could apply to programming in any language - while learning to apply them in Perl. After mainly writing simple scripts this was exactly the boost I needed to tackle more extensive programs - and write usefull scripts cleaner and faster than before. It was a nice refresher for me, but I think would make a good text book for first timers too.