If you ever need to learn anything specific about computers, and you need to learn it quickly and correcty, chances are there is an O'Reilly book to do it. I am currently reading Practical C++ Programming:

I've also purchased Running Linux and Learning Perl. I highly recommend the Learning Perl title. You can also subscribe to O'Reilly and get a ten book virtual bookself for $15 US a month allowing you to have full read access to up to 10 O'Reilly books at a time. You can swap the titles out as you need. Pretty nifty. I'll continue to buy the books rather than pay a price that high, but I can see that it might appeal to some. Their subscription service is called Safari.