I can't remember which book came first, but I think this was my second web how-to book (the first one concentrated on HTML tricks and JS goodies-- almost all stuff I frown on now).

While I'm certainly glad this book gave me a gentle introduction to Perl, I have to agree that it is completely worthless. The book is designed to enable cut & paste web development of the worst kind, and only for the most minimal kinds of sites.

The guestbook sample code has no mention of the huge security risk this sort of scripting can pose, and does nothing to mitigate it.

I couldn't agree with this review more. I feel like having started with Perl via this book, that my Perl programming has suffered for a long time. THIS BOOK SUCKS.