You have the desire to learn Perl, that's a great start! The difficult part of learning any language is keeping up the desire and motiviation. The best way to learn a language is to gain experience utilizing it. A good way to start, think of a goal and create a deadline for yourself... and then GO For IT!! :) Granted, you may fall into some pitfalls or have questions - but that's natural. You'll learn with each problem and question. As you finish your project, you'll be amazed on how much you've learned - and you accomplish something as well(either something fun or useful for work).

Here are some useful nodes:

• Idea Generation for a New Programmer - ideas for projects
• New here - good references
• What does it take to learn Perl - Persistance and Time (I think is highly important with any language)
• Perl Books
• On the Matter of Books
• Book Reviews
• One Monk's Reading List

If you run into any problems, feel free to ask -That's what we're here for (or one reason.. besides learning ourselves).