The purpose of this book is to provide a simple yet profound introduction to the art of computer programming for an inexperienced audience, using Python -- an easy, popular, and powerful scripting programming language. It is an attempt to close the gap between two relatively disjoint communities and two respective classes of books: the community of novice programmers desperately struggling with their first C, C++ or Java programs, and the community of computer professionals and hackers using Python for their "bread and butter." Because of this deep division, most of the books for novices do not cover Python, while most (if not all) Python books for professionals are not introductory and cannot be recommended to non-programmers.