I recall a wonderful and very easy going tutorial: http://www.sthomas.net/roberts-perl-tutorial.htm. What I reccomend is to go through the tutorial's first sections, and then abandon it in favor of more in depth references, like the various books mentioned above...
I didn't have money for books though, but now having acquired a few I realize how much I needed them.

-nuffin
zz zZ Z Z #!perl