Newbie needs book advice

[Christopher W. Boerger]

Hey all,

I've gotten the bug to learn programming and have chosen Python as the 
language to learn with.  I've downloaded python 2.0 (MacOS) from 
python.org and started printing out some of the online tutorials 
available from the site.  However, I've discovered while the online 
tutorials are good, they pretty much cover rules and syntax and don't 
get into examples, lessons or applying what was just taught into some 
real-world examples.  I guess I'm looking for some homework at the end 
of a lesson.

So I decided to purchase a book to learn the language and get some 
programming assignments (homework) as well.  I've narrowed it down to 
two books: Learning Python by Mark Lutz from O'Reilly and Learning To 
Program Using Python: A Tutorial For Hobbyists, Self-Starters, And Those 
Who Want To Learn The Art Of Programming by Alan Gauld from 
Addison-Wesley.

Any thoughts, opinions, advice?  My background in programming is limited 
to a Pascal class in college, although I did ace the class with a 97% - 
not bad for a Political Science major :^)

Thank you for your help.

Chris

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Chris Boerger <cdboerger at earthlink.net>