New to Python/Programming

[Neuruss]

I was in the same situation a few months ago. I wanted to learn
programming with a solid foundation of programming principles (OOP,
etc) but with a language that could allow me to do it without
unnecessary complications. Obviously, the choice was Python, so I can
tell you what worked for me:

1) Starting from zero: 
I recommend Josh Cogliati's "Non-Programmers Tutorial For Python".
It's a very easy to follow online tutorial that will teach you the
basics, with exercises and all you need to get started.
Although it is aimed to begginners, with the lessons learned you will
have a very good knowledge of python basics and programming in
general.
Find it here: honors.montana.edu/~jjc/easytut/easytut/ 
I recommend taking the time to do the exercises and play a little bit
after each lesson. They are very easy and simple, but take them
seriously.

2) After getting comfortable, you will want to get into the object
oriented side of programming. It's not hard, but it takes a mental
shift to begin thinking in objects. I learn best by example, and the
best one I found is Alan Gauld's online tutorial (there's a book also,
but the online version was just what I needed to "see the light"). You
can find it here: http://www.freenetpages.co.uk/hp/alan.gauld/
If you swallowed Josh Cogliati's tutorial, you wont find nothing new
here for the basics, but there's a very good example of a banking
application that will help you understand the object oriented
paradigm.
I think this is a very good example for teaching OOP and it shows you
in a few lines all you need to know: classes, innheritance, etc..

After that, any other tutorial or book would be easy to follow.
I recomend these books:

- Lerning Python by Alan Lutz .This is the favorite of many people.
It's very good but not nessesary the best, at least not for me.
- Core Python programming by Wesley Chun. Another very good one.
- Python Bible (don't remember the author..)
- Python Visual Quickstart guide.

Take this advice:
Work with the online tutorials listed above. Take your time and follow
them at your own pace, and use also the official python tutorial which
comes with the IDLE (see the HELP menu).
There's no need to buy books, because I sincerelly think that all you
need is available online, but getting a book or two wont harm you...

Once you reach the comfortability level, you can go to a bookstore and
see briefly which style suits you best. All the books listed above are
very good
(and sorry for my english).

Good luck and enjoy...
Python is fun!

Luis