Absolutely. The Perl library of the early 2000s stands head and shoulders above anything I've read since in programming. O'Reiily blazed a trail with their Perl

Absolutely. The Perl library of the early 2000s stands head and shoulders above anything I've read since in programming. O'Reiily blazed a trail with their Perl library because Perl seemed to attract the brightest minds and the best writers. I think Larry Wall's background in linguistics played a part. I have a more or less complete set of Perl books from the early 2000s which I frequently dip into for inspiration. "Perl Best Practices" by The Damian is a particular favourite. "Programming Perl" and "Mastering Regular Expressions" are timeless masterpieces.