Building Skills in Python: A Programmer's Introduction to Python by Steven F. Lott

This book is a complete presentation of the Python language. It is oriented toward learning, which involves accumulating many closely intertwined concepts. In our experience teaching, coaching and doing programming, there is an upper limit on the "clue absorption rate". In order to keep within this limit, we've found that it helps to present a language as ever-expanding layers. We'll lead you from a very tiny, easy to understand subset of statements to the entire Python language and all of the built-in data structures. We've also found that doing a number of exercises helps internalize each language concept. It is intended for professional programmers who need to learn Python are our primary audience and provides specific help for you in a number of ways. This book assumes a basic level of skill with any of the commonly-available computer systems.