Despite what others say, I find OReilly books hard to learn from. Don't get me wrong I think they are great reference material. I learned Perl from David Till's book -> http://www.amazon.com/teach-Yourself-Perl-Days-Sams/dp/0672308940/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1200481137&sr=8-2
I guess if you are buying a used copy for 31 cents you can hardly go wrong. David Till was even nice enough to send me the programs all typed in. Structured programming is easier to learn, but might not serve you in the long run if you choose programming as a career.