Don't forget http://www.pythonchallenge.com/ http://www.pythonchallenge.com/ You learn by solving riddle-like puzzles and then applying functions from the stan

Don't forget http://www.pythonchallenge.com/ http://www.pythonchallenge.com/ You learn by solving riddle-like puzzles and then applying functions from the standard library once you know what to do. The riddles make it memorable and more of a 'doing', discovering process so it will stick in your mind more. You'll do stuff like write scripts to query web servers and log the responses. Also for just getting started have a look on YouTube for Stanford Programming Paradigms with Jerery Cain, I think it's lecture 24 where he introduces Python to the class and gives a very good run-down of the language characteristics, demoing with the command line shell.