Which language should I learn?

Python or Perl?  And which version of them?  And what is the best book for learning that language?

>>5
anything over 5.8.3 is ok to get started with. Perl runs on over 100 platforms. The latest version (5.12.3) is always recommended where possible.
- http://www.perl.org/get.html
If you standardize on 5.8.* you're missing out. There are better practices in some cases which later versions make available.