worked through a copy of Perl in 21 Days.

I'm not sure what you're referring to here. Is it the language specification, the source code, or a book (Programming Perl/Learning Perl)? If it's Learning Perl that's only about 300 pages and can be read on a weekend, if it's Programming Perl, why would someone read it straight through? (I did, it wasn't worth it, better off as a reference book).