I definitely agree that the Camel book (Programming Perl) might actually be the way to go, especially if you have a good previous programming experience in another language. The two other books are really really good, but I do not think that they are really an answer to the OP question. Perhaps for a bit later. BTW, Higher Order Perl is available on line (just as Modern Perl, so that it is possible to get a gist of it before buying them (this at least what I did, I read both of them, and then bought them in paper edition, I considered they were definitely worth my money).