There is an old saying:

"Those that can do, those that can't teach"

No amount of book knowledge will ever substitute for practical
experience. 

The practice practice practice advice is impossible to fault.

This being said, in the texts you will find 'perls'
of wisdom to help you avoid the age old pitfalls. While you 
may need to reinvent a wheel or two to learn your stuff there
is no need to get run over by a bus in the name of experience.

For out and out syntax practice deconstructing obfuscated 
code will teach you a lot and provides an endpoint, reading
code comes a somewhat poor second. JAPHs make for 10 minutes
of intense thought to understand them - all in all a nice bite
sized syntax problem.

Summary

Do code
Do make mistakes
Do not repeat your mistakes, make new ones!
Do ask if you need help
Do read at least one book cover to cover
Do not take it too seriously
Do enjoy

Tip:If you have been coding for 36 hours straight take a break.

tachyon

my $answer=[q;7566626f206f7420756f7920656d6f636c65772049;];
print join''=>reverse split''=>pack H42=>$answer->[0]=>eval;