While appreciate Zed's effort, I think he tried too hard to differentiate from Dive into Mark's one. I found the book mind numbing. It's Python the boring way, the first 70 pages are dedicated to displaying strings!
I used to teach an introduction to programming class, for people who've never programmed before, don't know what a string is, and are still having trouble wrapping their heads around the concept of even having a precise syntax, let alone figuring out what it does, or learning to translate their thoughts into programs. You've probably forgotten what that was like; I sure did, until I saw a classroom full of students struggling in the same ways, with textbooks that failed to help them out.
The parts you found boring are some of the most important parts, since they let someone figure out this "programming" thing and build up an understanding of the very basics.
