Rating: 

As an experienced programmer new to Python, this (large!) book is proving its worth at a very early stage. I picked up the rudiments of Python from the 'Nutshell' book, and the online tutorial (www.python.org). This book picks up from there perfectly - how to get things done.

I have sifted through the first few chapters and feel I've learned much about the 'python way' of doing things. I have also had a need for help with XML (middle of the book) and C-extentions (end of the book), and found that jumping around as such was not a problem - the material sampled in both of these sections provided a foundation that was far easier to deal with than previous attempts to patch together info from web searching, etc.

I'll never have time to read it cover to cover, but it will be on my desk anytime I'm python'ing.