Newbe-books

[Nuff Said]

Since you have some programming background, I would recommend
David M. Beazley's "Python - Essential Reference (2nd edition)".

It gives a concise overview of the language and is a great 
reference book, too. (Not like many other books which are
- at most - good for one reading only.)

The 'Essential Reference (2nd edition)" covers Python 2.1. So you
should read A. M. Kuchling's "What's new in Python 2.x" for Python
2.2 and 2.3 (which one should always do when a new Python version
is released). The articles can be found on the Python Homepage:
  
  http://www.python.org/doc/2.2.3/whatsnew/whatsnew22.html
  http://www.python.org/doc/2.3.3/whatsnew/whatsnew23.html

The above mentioned book, the "What's new ...' articles and
the Python 'Library Reference'

  http://www.python.org/doc/2.3.3/lib/lib.html

are all you really need for a long time. (If you are interested
in GUI programming - e.g. Tkinter - you will need additional
sources of information. The same holds for other 'special' stuff.)

HTH, Nuff.