What is the goal that you're trying to reach? General interest in programming? Implementing a specific solution at your non-programming job? Making inroads into a new career as a software engineer? Hobby?

It's versatile, has a good community, and is very readable -- very important for learning imho.

it's a good first choice; it introduces you to common concepts easily, it has a nice clear syntax and can be used in a range of paradigms (OO, FP, shell scripting).