I didn't learn Python from a book, I learned it by forcing myself to write something nontrivial in it...but I had prior programming experience. So I'm not sure

I didn't learn Python from a book, I learned it by forcing myself to write something nontrivial in it...but I had prior programming experience. So I'm not sure if I can give you much useful advice here. I'll second mryan's recommendation for the Django docs, though. Also, I see you're in NY. I am too. Shoot me an email if you want to grab coffee some time.