Advice sought for learning mod_perl (2 or 1)

Hi everyone,

 I am new to Apache/mod_perl and everything else. I bought a fairly good 
book on Apache/mysql/mod_perl. Unfortunately, it is based on the Apache 1 
server and mod_perl1. In doing so, it is using the Apache::Request module 
which has not been ported to mod_perl2 yet.
 Several questions come to mind:

 Q1: Is there a similar module to Apache::Request? Similar to syntax that 
is.
 Q2: Any real benefits to working on the latest and greatest? Or should I 
go to the older versions?
Yes, I realize that for Q2, I may want to simply go with the more "stable" 
versions of the Apache server and mod_perl as I am just learning, but I 
would like to hear some opinions. Thanks.
Robert

FYI: OS -> RH v8.0
 Apache -> v2.45
 mod_perl -> 1.99.09
 perl -> v5.8

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