I see a disturbing ternd by O'Reily of pumping out books that are not well done. I consider this a terrible book. Its poorly organized, skips over many important topics, and among the worst books on Perl Ive seen. My gut impression was it took them about a month to write it, just a rush job rip off of programming Perl.A beginner should avoid this book. Learn Perl from another book and use Programming Perl as a reference. The Cookbook is good too.Avoid this book, its a waste of money. Its the worst languages book Ive seen in a while.