I feel the same way...I have no experience in programming at all. Luckily, my mom (a PerlMonk) persuaded me to try learning Perl, and I am enjoying it!

So to help me get started, my mom bought me Beginning Perl (Simon Cozens) This book is good for learning the basics and for getting a clear idea of how to understand Perl and how it works. I've noticed that a lot of monks have recommended Learning Perl. I hope this one still helps!

I can't quite grasp all the concepts yet either, but from what I've been told, it's not something to worry about in the early stage of learning.

Good Luck!