Even the table of contents is atypical. It's broken down into "Table of Contents (Summary)", which looks normal and boring, and "Table of Contents (the real thing)" which actually describes each chapter in plain English.
In pretty much any area of study, the most difficult part to learn is the foundation, the basics. But once one learns the basics of say, Calculus for example, learning more advanced Calculus becomes easier than learning the basics of Calculus when you knew nothing. Well, quite frankly, learning new computer programming languages is as overwhelming as learning Calculus is. But Head First Python made learning Python basics common sense!
One of the first things I did when I started reading the book is install IDLE, the integrated development environment that's used in this book. An integrated development environment is just jargon for an application that can be used to program in Python. IDLE doesn't come with the book, but it can be downloaded for free at Python.org for different operating systems. As I entered the code in IDLE as is shown in the book's examples, it amazed me how the language behaved exactly as the book told me it would. It's one thing to read about something, and another to actually do it. As I observed how Python and IDLE reacted, I learned hands-on how the technology actually works. It's an experience no amount of reading complicated manuals can actually give you. I was amazed how intuitive the basics of Python became to me.
Now that I firmly grasp the basics, thanks to the cognitive research used in the book's design, I'm ready to learn more advanced Python. The last chapter recommends several other Python books, including a couple of other titles from O'Reilly. Before Head First Python, those books would have confused me. But thanks to the book, I'm eager to learn more!
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