Great Python books for the beginner

[MooJoo]

In article <2008011220494516807-generalcody at gmailcom>,
 GeneralCody <generalcody at gmail.com> wrote:

> On 2008-01-12 08:03:42 +0100, Landon <projecteclipsor at gmail.com> said:
> 
> > Hi, I'm a freshman in college and I'm going to be taking an intro to
> > programming course next semester which mainly uses Python, so I
> > thought it might be a good time to pick up Python beyond the scope of
> > the class as well. The text book for this class is Python for the
> > Absolute Beginner or something similar to that name.
> > 
> > I was wondering if anyone had any opinions on what other titles I
> > could look into since this one seems from a glance at reviews to be
> > teaching mainly through game programming (a topic I'm not too
> > interested in) or if this one is a quality book by itself.
> 
> I would definetly go for Learning Python first, maybe Apress "Python, 
> from novice to Professional" as well...
> 
>  

Second those suggestions. Both are excellent books for the novice with 
details more experienced pythonistas can use. Although it is an 
excellent book, stay away from the Python Cookbook for now. Appreciating 
it requires a good working knowledge first.

If you do get Learning Python, make sure its the 3rd edition that just 
became available. It covers the current 2.5 release.