Post by Peter Cooper on April 17th, 2007

The Essential Ruby Book Reading List

Huw 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!

6 Responses to “The Essential Ruby Book Reading List”

  1. #1
    Danno Says:

    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.

  2. #2
    Daniel Fischer Says:

    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?

  3. #3
    Shawn Garbett Says:

    Pickaxe + Agile Web Development is all I've found required. Why so many?

  4. #4
    Peter Cooper Says:

    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.

  5. #5
    Peter Cooper Says:

    Also, The Ruby Way is an excellent book and covers so much stuff the Pickaxe doesn't.

  6. #6
    Huw Collingbourne Says:

    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