perlbook - Books about and related to Perl
There are many books on Perl and Perl-related. A few of these are good, some are OK, but many aren't worth your money. There is a list of these books, some with extensive reviews, at http://books.perl.org/ . We list some of the books here, and while listing a book implies our endorsement, don't think that not including a book means anything.
Most of these books are available online through Safari Books Online ( http://safaribooksonline.com/ ).
The major reference book on Perl, written by the creator of Perl, is Programming Perl:
by Tom Christiansen, brian d foy, Larry Wall with Jon Orwant
ISBN 978-0-596-00492-7 [4th edition February 2012]
ISBN 978-1-4493-9890-3 [ebook]
http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596004927
The Ram is a cookbook with hundreds of examples of using Perl to accomplish specific tasks:
by Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington,
with Foreword by Larry Wall
ISBN 978-0-596-00313-5 [2nd Edition August 2003]
ISBN 978-0-596-15888-0 [ebook]
http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596003135/
If you want to learn the basics of Perl, you might start with the Llama book, which assumes that you already know a little about programming:
by Randal L. Schwartz, Tom Phoenix, and brian d foy
ISBN 978-1-4493-0358-7 [6th edition June 2011]
ISBN 978-1-4493-0458-4 [ebook]
http://www.learning-perl.com/
The tutorial started in the Llama continues in the Alpaca, which introduces the intermediate features of references, data structures, object-oriented programming, and modules:
by Randal L. Schwartz and brian d foy, with Tom Phoenix
foreword by Damian Conway
ISBN 978-1-4493-9309-0 [2nd edition August 2012]
ISBN 978-1-4493-0459-1 [ebook]
http://www.intermediateperl.com/
You might want to keep these desktop references close by your keyboard:
by Johan Vromans
ISBN 978-1-4493-0370-9 [5th edition July 2011]
ISBN 978-1-4493-0813-1 [ebook]
http://oreilly.com/catalog/0636920018476/
by Richard Foley
ISBN 978-0-596-00503-0 [1st edition January 2004]
ISBN 978-0-596-55625-9 [ebook]
http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596005030/
by Tony Stubblebine
ISBN 978-0-596-51427-3 [2nd edition July 2007]
ISBN 978-0-596-55782-9 [ebook]
http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596514273/
(There are 2 books with this title)
by Curtis 'Ovid' Poe
ISBN 978-1-118-01384-7
http://www.wrox.com/WileyCDA/WroxTitle/productCd-1118013840.html
by James Lee
ISBN 1-59059-391-X [3rd edition April 2010 & ebook]
http://www.apress.com/9781430227939
by Randal L. Schwartz, Tom Phoenix, and brian d foy
ISBN 978-1-4493-0358-7 [6th edition June 2011]
ISBN 978-1-4493-0458-4 [ebook]
http://www.learning-perl.com/
by Randal L. Schwartz and brian d foy, with Tom Phoenix
foreword by Damian Conway
ISBN 978-1-4493-9309-0 [2nd edition August 2012]
ISBN 978-1-4493-0459-1 [ebook]
http://www.intermediateperl.com/
by brian d foy
ISBN 9978-1-4493-9311-3 [2st edition January 2014]
ISBN 978-1-4493-6487-8 [ebook]
http://www.masteringperl.org/
by Joseph N. Hall, Joshua A. McAdams, brian d foy
ISBN 0-321-49694-9 [2nd edition 2010]
http://www.effectiveperlprogramming.com/
by Sam Tregar
ISBN 1-59059-018-X [1st edition August 2002 & ebook]
http://www.apress.com/9781590590188
by Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington,
with Foreword by Larry Wall
ISBN 978-0-596-00313-5 [2nd Edition August 2003]
ISBN 978-0-596-15888-0 [ebook]
http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596003135/
by David N. Blank-Edelman
ISBN 978-0-596-00639-6 [2nd edition May 2009]
ISBN 978-0-596-80251-6 [ebook]
http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596006396
by Linchi Shea
ISBN 1-59059-097-X [1st edition July 2003 & ebook]
http://www.apress.com/9781590590973
by Jan Goyvaerts and Steven Levithan
ISBN 978-1-4493-1943-4 [2nd edition August 2012]
ISBN 978-1-4493-2747-7 [ebook]
http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920023630.do
by Tim Bunce and Alligator Descartes
ISBN 978-1-56592-699-8 [February 2000]
ISBN 978-1-4493-8670-2 [ebook]
http://oreilly.com/catalog/9781565926998
by Damian Conway
ISBN 978-0-596-00173-5 [1st edition July 2005]
ISBN 978-0-596-15900-9 [ebook]
http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596001735
by Mark-Jason Dominus
ISBN 1-55860-701-3 [1st edition March 2005]
free ebook http://hop.perl.plover.com/book/
http://hop.perl.plover.com/
by Jeffrey E. F. Friedl
ISBN 978-0-596-52812-6 [3rd edition August 2006]
ISBN 978-0-596-55899-4 [ebook]
http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596528126
by Lincoln Stein
ISBN 0-201-61571-1 [1st edition 2001]
http://www.pearsonhighered.com/educator/product/Network-Programming-with-Perl/9780201615715.page
by Darren Chamberlain, Dave Cross, and Andy Wardley
ISBN 978-0-596-00476-7 [December 2003]
ISBN 978-1-4493-8647-4 [ebook]
http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596004767
by Damian Conway
with foreword by Randal L. Schwartz
ISBN 1-884777-79-1 [1st edition August 1999 & ebook]
http://www.manning.com/conway/
by Dave Cross
ISBN 1-930110-00-6 [1st edition 2001 & ebook]
http://www.manning.com/cross
by Steve Lidie and Nancy Walsh
ISBN 978-1-56592-716-2 [1st edition January 2002]
ISBN 978-0-596-10344-6 [ebook]
http://oreilly.com/catalog/9781565927162
by Tim Jenness and Simon Cozens
ISBN 1-930110-82-0 [1st edition August 2002 & ebook]
http://www.manning.com/jenness
by Richard Foley with Andy Lester
ISBN 1-59059-454-1 [1st edition July 2005 & ebook]
http://www.apress.com/9781590594544
Some of these books are available as free downloads.
Higher-Order Perl: http://hop.perl.plover.com/
Modern Perl: http://onyxneon.com/books/modern_perl/
You might notice several familiar Perl concepts in this collection of ACM columns from Jon Bentley. The similarity to the title of the major Perl book (which came later) is not completely accidental:
by Jon Bentley
ISBN 978-0-201-65788-3 [2 edition, October 1999]
by Jon Bentley
ISBN 0-201-11889-0 [January 1988]
Each version of Perl comes with the documentation that was current at the time of release. This poses a problem for content such as book lists. There are probably very nice books published after this list was included in your Perl release, and you can check the latest released version at http://perldoc.perl.org/perlbook.html .
Some of the books we've listed appear almost ancient in internet scale, but we've included those books because they still describe the current way of doing things. Not everything in Perl changes every day. Many of the beginner-level books, too, go over basic features and techniques that are still valid today. In general though, we try to limit this list to books published in the past five years.
If your Perl book isn't listed and you think it should be, let us know. mailto:perl5-porters@perl.org