And it wasn't as obvious anymore, which books to buy. But I found one or two from ORA that I didn't think were worth the money, and I've found several excellent Perl books published by other companies. And so the simple became complicated. Within the past six months or so, I have been inundated with requests for book recommendations. I thought about it a lot, and decided to give this a try.
Some books are more geared towards general reference, some towards specific applications.
Almost all of them are appropriate for different experience levels. Knowing which is which is important. If you're on a limited budget, then choosing the right book is very important. Because of this, I give you the following guidelines for buying Perl books, broken out by Perl experience level. On the Top Shelf are the books that I recommend buying first.