Post by Peter Cooper on April 17th, 2007
The Essential Ruby Book Reading List
- “Pro ActiveRecord” Book Ready To Pre-Order
- Using Amazon’s Web Services for Spidering the Web
- Ruby In Steel Text Edition - VS2008 Based Windows Ruby / Rails IDE
Click here to add on del.icio.usHuw Collingbourne, one of the developers of the Ruby In Steel IDE, has put together a list of 13 "essential" Ruby (and Rails) related books, refreshingly with no Amazon affiliate links in sight!
April 18th, 2007 at 12:46 am
His filters are too weak!
Pickaxe is the only truly ESSENTIAL Ruby book.
_why's guide is the awesomest Ruby book though, and the one that'll melt your brain to the best consistency.
April 18th, 2007 at 12:57 am
Some of those books are really old though, and why is he listing Agile Web Development First Edition, when the Second has been out for a while now?
April 18th, 2007 at 4:03 pm
Pickaxe + Agile Web Development is all I've found required. Why so many?
April 18th, 2007 at 6:11 pm
As the author of Beginning Ruby, and based on the comments I've had from readers, I'd definitely say the Pickaxe isn't for everyone. It starts pretty deep.
April 18th, 2007 at 6:13 pm
Also, The Ruby Way is an excellent book and covers so much stuff the Pickaxe doesn't.
April 19th, 2007 at 8:03 pm
I personally prefer The Ruby Way to pickaxe. However, the real point is that the various books address different readers. Peter's book is a great introductory text - not as comprehensive as the pickaxe but a great deal more approachable. Then again, for Rails, RoR Up and Running is a very nice little book - one of its great virtues being 'little' (not everyone needs 800+ pages!). As I said, the only book I've yet come across that goes into Rails in any real depth is Agile Web Development. But then again, if you don't already know Ruby, I definitely wouldn't recommend that one as a 'first' text on the subject; there are already far too many Rails developers who don't understand Ruby - and the world really doesn't need any more ;-)
all the best
Huw