You should read this book from front to back, stopping to do the exercises. Each chapter builds on preceding chapters, and we'll assume that you know the material from those chapters as we discuss new topics.
Chapter 1, Introduction
An introduction to the material.
Chapter 2, Intermediate Foundations
Pick up some intermediate Perl skills you'll need for the rest of the book.
Chapter 3, Using Modules
Use Perl's core modules, as well as modules from other people. We're going to show you how to create your own modules later in the book, but until we do, you can still use modules you already have.
Chapter 4, Introduction to References
Introduce a level of redirection to allow the same code to operate on different sets of data.
Chapter 5, References and Scoping
Learn how Perl manages to keep track of pointers to data, and an introduction to anonymous data structures and autovivification.
Chapter 6, Manipulating Complex Data Structures
Create, access, and print arbitrarily deep and nested data structures, including arrays of arrays and hashes of hashes.
Chapter 7, Subroutine References
Capture behavior as an anonymous subroutine that you create dynamically and execute later.
Chapter 8, Filehandle References
Store filehandles in scalar variables that you can easily pass around your program or store in data structures.
Chapter 9, Practical Reference Tricks
Sorting complex operations, the Schwartzian Transform, and working with recursively defined data.
Chapter 10, Building Larger Programs
Build larger programs by separating code into separate files and namespaces.
Chapter 11, Introduction to Objects
Work with classes, method calls, inheritance, and overriding.
Chapter 12, Objects with Data
Add per-instance data, including constructors, getters, and setters.
Chapter 13, Object Destruction
Add behavior to an object that is going away, including object persistence.
Chapter 14, Some Advanced Object Topics
Use multiple inheritance, automatic methods, and references to filehandles.
Chapter 15, Exporter
How use works, how we can decide what to export, and how we can create our own import routines.
Chapter 16, Writing a Distribution
Package a module for sharing, including portable installation instructions.
Chapter 17, Essential Testing
Test your code to ensure it does what you want it to do.
Chapter 18, Advanced Testing
Test complex aspects of code and meta-code things such as documentation and test coverage.
Chapter 19, Contributing to CPAN
Share your work with the world by uploading it to CPAN.
Appendix, Answers to Exercises
Where to go to get answers.