A Programmer's Introduction to PHP 4.0
by W. J. Gilmore

Not a bad book - Overall, this was not a bad book. I was breezing through the chapters since I already knew C++... and I have to say he did a good job on showing how to set up PHP with Apache. This book also serves as an excellent reference- it shows you several important functions of PHP, as well as an explanation of the usage.

The only thing I wish Gilmore had done was explain on how to set up mySQL with Apache. He did a good job explaining how to set up PHP with Apache, but why not show how to set up PHP/Apache with mySQL? It would've been nice if it had been included, but I didn't mind looking it up. (He makes up for it by showing in a clear manner how to integrate mySQL with PHP.) Other than that, the content of this book and its explanations are quite good.

what would you recommend for someone who has no programming experience other than html and wants to get on the php bus?

I'll give you a guess who it is

I've got all the configuration stuff down, i.e. making apache work with Mysql and so on...I've just got to learn the actual code now. That's the type of book I'm after.

I reccomend Web Database Applications with PHP and MySQL by Oreilly, I use it with the pocket reference and it is prety good in putting PHP into words I can understand, I also read and spent som etime with Sam's teach yourself PHP in 24 hours, but I prefer and recommend Oreilly.