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?