book recommendation for Python newbie?

[Gabriel Rossetti]

Joe Strout wrote:
> I'm trying to (gently) convince my business partner that we should be 
> adding Python to our core toolset.  He's never used it before, apart 
> from poking around in the tutorial a bit at my urging.  But he's got a 
> birthday coming up, and I'd like to get him a book that will help him 
> make the transition more smoothly and enjoyably.
>
> In case it matters: his background is mainly in databases (originally 
> 4D, more recently MySQL), and his current primary tools are REALbasic 
> (which is a statically typed language with semantics similar to Java) 
> and PHP.  He's primarily a Mac user, but occasionally has to dabble in 
> Linux or Windows.  If we do make this change, he'll be using Python in 
> a professional capacity to develop commercial apps.
>
> There are a lot of Python books out there... which one would you 
> recommend in this case?
>
> Thanks,
> - Joe
>
I Learned Python using "Core Python Programming" written by Wesley J. 
Chun, second edition, Prentice Hall, ISBN 0-13-226993-7

I found it to be really good, it starts by introducing the key concepts 
in the early chapters and then goes over each concept more in depth in 
the later chapters. The second part of the book has advances topics, 
like DB, network, RegEx, GUIs, etc. He'll need minimal OOP concepts 
though to grasp the OOP chapters though (classes, single/multiple 
inheritance, etc), but the book does not focus on OOP though. I use 
Python in a professional environment to develop a commercial app. I was 
very quickly able to program in Python with this book.

Gabriel