[newbie] Buying an introductory/reference text

[Carl]

There are quite a few online books to teach the basic syntax /
structure of python coding, such as How To Think Like a Computer
Scientist (just search for it).

The absolute best reference manual and guide is the Python Bible. I'm
at work and don't remember the authors' names. It's a big book that
introduces you to every major module with example code
(non-trivial...stuff like a threaded web crawler in about 20 lines).
Awesome reference manual - I use it every single time I sit down to
code, because the ease of learning something new makes me keep trying
new things in my code. It's $40, and worth every dollar.

Carl