Learn25 Programming Books for the Aspiring Developer

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Faye Bridge
writes on October 18, 2017

Whether you’re learning to code online, at a coding bootcamp, or in-person, there’s one supplementary resource that we recommend to accompany your learning: books. But with so many programming books to choose from (a Google search brings up over 12 million related results) how do you know which ones to choose?

We decided to do some crowdsourcing and asked our awesome community on Facebook and Twitter: If there was one programming book you’d recommended, what would it be? We got lots of great responses and after sorting through them pulled together the top 25 (listed in no particular order).

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General Programming

1. Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship by Robert C. Martin

2. Code Complete: A Practical Handbook of Software Construction by Steve McConnell

3. Think Like a Programmer: An Introduction to Creative Problem Solving by V. Anton Spraul

4. Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware & Software by Charles Petzold

5. Starting Out with Programming Logic & Design by Tony Gaddis

6. Beginning Programming All-In-One Desk Reference For Dummies by Wallace Wang

7. Cracking the Coding Interview: 189 Programming Questions & Solutions by Gayle Laakmann McDowell

8. Head first book series (Java, Python, Design Patterns, JavaScript, C#, WordPress, Rails)

HTML & CSS

9. HTML and CSS: Design & Build Websites by Jon Duckett

10. Head First HTML and CSS: A Learner’s Guide to Creating Standards-Based Web Pages by Elisabeth Robson

JavaScript & jQuery

11. You Don’t Know JS: Up & Going by Kyle Simpson

12. Eloquent JavaScript: A Modern Introduction to Programming by Marjin Haverbeke

13. Head First JavaScript Programming: A Brain-Friendly Guide by Eric T. Freeman

14. JavaScript & jQuery: Interactive Front-End Web Development by Jon Duckett

15. Professional JavaScript for Web Developers by Nicholas C. Zakas

16. Secrets of the JavaScript Ninja by John Resig

17. JavaScript: JavaScript Programming The Ultimate Beginners Guide by Dennis Hutten

Python

18. Learn Python 3 The Hard Way: A Very Simple Introduction to the Terrifyingly Beautiful World of Computers and Code by Zed A. Shaw

19. Fluent Python: Clear, Concise, and Effective Programming by Luciano Ramalho

20. Python Crash Course: A Hands-On, Project-Based Introduction to Programming by Eric Matthes

21. Automate The Boring Stuff with Python: Practical Programming for Total Beginners by Al Sweigart

& More

22. The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master by Andrew Hunt

23. iOS Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide by Christian Keur

24. Java How to Program, Early Objects by Paul J. Deitel

25. Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions by Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths

This is definitely not an exhaustive list, so we’d love to hear from you. What programming books would you add to the list?

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6 Responses to “25 Programming Books for the Aspiring Developer”

  1. Andre vemba Menezes de Carvalho on October 27, 2017 at 3:15 am said:

    chris you should read -> the 7 habits of highly effectivve people by stephen covey and also check -> side hustle and $100 startup by chris guillebeau….you can find much more on amazon i recommend you to use amazon kindle if you can or like read on devices (obs: with kindle the books are cheaper then you can buy mmore)

  2. Great List, but please update with some good books on android and Laravel framework.

  3. Would it be possible to also have an article for books that are more conceptual? An example would be “Don’t Make Me Think” by Steve Krug and “The Design of Everyday Things” by Donald Norman. I listened to Donald Norman’s book on Audible and read “Don’t Make Me Think”. “Unmarketing”, “The Lean startup”, and “Start With Why” are also great books as well.

    I love your tutorials for the tech component, but I’m looking for more books about professional and personal growth 🙂

    Thank you for any help or recommendations!!

    • Andre de Carvalho on October 27, 2017 at 3:20 am said:

      chris you should read -> the 7 habits of highly effectivve people by stephen covey and also check -> side hustle and $100 startup by chris guillebeau….you can find much more on amazon i recommend you to use amazon kindle if you can or like read on devices (obs: with kindle the books are cheaper then you can buy mmore)

  4. really didn’t mansion clean coder by uncle Bob?

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