reading one byte from stdin

[Mark McDuff]

I'm trying to read one byte from stdin, without the newline.

If I try something like:
 >>> import os, sys
 >>> os.read(sys.stdin.fileno(),1)

I can input a character, but then I have to press enter, which leaves  
a newline character in the stdin buffer and requires two keypresses.   
Is there any way to read only one keypress in a simple manner (i.e. no  
curses)?