Books: HCI 574 course textbook + supplemental material)

I use Mark Lutz's Learning Python as textbook for HCI 574 (Spring 2012). I  own editions 2, 3 and 4 and I find myself often referring back to my annotations within the book (how old-fashioned :) As the HCI 574 Spring 2012 is an intro course, I will still use Python version 2.x, specifically  python 2.7 (the newest/last version 2 of Python). As such, using the 3. edition of the book (for Python 2.5, Oct. 2007) is perfectly sufficient. Although the 3.d ed. may be officially out of print, you should be able to get it used in the ISU bookstore or on Amazon etc.

Learning Python, Mark Lutz, O'Reilly Media, paperback, 750 pages
third ed. (for Python 2.5) Oct. 2007, 746 pages, ISBN 9780596513986)

Caveat:  Python Version 3 has been out for a while  (summary of the most important changes by python's BDFL here or here) and if you think that  you may want to dive deeper into Python after this course, or if you're feeling puristic, you might instead get the  4. edition edition (Sept. 2009, for Python 3.x).  The 4. ed book even covers  both versions of Python,  2.6 and 3.0, so you can certainly use it in my course,  if I point to chapters and pages in the text book during class I will (at least try to) do so for both version of the book.
My main issue with the 4. ed. book is, that it's considerably heftier (1200 vs. 750 pages) than the 3.ed book (for Python 2.x) because it covers both versions.  So, getting the the 4. edition will future-proof your python-hacking for the next couple of years, but it's quite the tome. One solution would be to get e-version (pdf) instead.

Learning Python, Mark Lutz, O'Reilly Media, paperback, 1200 pages
fourth ed. (for Python 2.6/3.0) Sept. 2009, 1216. pages, ISBN:978-0-596-15806-4


Also, I have incorporated parts from from this book in my course:

• Beginning Python Visualization: Crafting Visual Transformation Scripts, Paperback: 384 pages, Apress; 1. edition (February 24, 2009), ISBN-10: 1430218436
• This book is about "gluing together" python code for visualizing data. I recommend getting it if you're  more on the science/math side.
• Book Reviews at Slashdot and at flowingdata.com
• Podcast interview with the author (at Python411 which has tons of other interesting python-related podcasts)
• More info on the book at APRESS (its publisher) and Amazon