in reply to Help for a sporadical scripter.

My personal everytime suggestion is Perl Cookbook. Very suitable as occasional, sporadic reading: only recipes, problems and recipes. It is quite a bit old but the basics are well covered. If you also want to be up to date put on your desk also a copy of Modern Perl: review the basics you learned with the cookbook with a fresh look.

HtH
L*
There are no rules, there are no thumbs..
Reinvent the wheel, then learn The Wheel; may be one day you reinvent one of THE WHEELS.