Vital Ruby concepts to learn before I jump into Rails? [closed]

Question

Disclaimer - Ruby is the first language I've ever learnt. I don't have any CS background.

I've worked through "Learn to Program" by Chris Pine which has been enjoyable and I now understand the basics pretty well. The next recommended book would be "Programming Ruby 1.9" (the next PickAxe). From what I've read it's just a massive reference book but it's 960 pages and that scares me.

What, in your opinion, would be the next 'gotta-know' concepts that I should learn?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Blocks and a bit of metaprogramming.

Answer 2

A good starting point (it was that for me...) are the Ryan Bates screencasts on Ruby on Rails: http://railscasts.com/ (start from the lowest numbers first...)