2006-09-06 great Python kickstart

You might call Dive Into Python a "learn by recipe" book. Each chapter starts off with an example and goes on by explaining what makes the example work. It's not a cookbook but each of the examples actually does something useful, that's something that made me go back to the book after reading it.

Python language basics are definitely covered but the book assumes the reader knows how to program. The book is sprinkled with helpful references to other languages like Java, C++, Perl, ... where appropriate. The writing style is fresh and entertaining. Lovely read, combine it with the Python tutorial and the on-line Python documentation and you're good to go.