Our Objective: To sort down a list of Best Python Books for Beginners and also for Advanced Programmers.
Table of Contents
Brief About Python Programming Language
Python is the number one choice of programming language for a large chunk of programmers. Thus Python is consistently ranking high in the list of top programming languages. Python is a general-purpose language that can be used in a wide variety of domains. Be it web development, data science, system administration, software development, or automating routine tasks, python is here to cover it all for you. It is an interpreted language that dates back to the 1980s. Guido van Rossum developed this high-level programming language with the motive of high readability. So Python’s simplicity lets you become productive in less time.
Python appears to be the weapon of choice for coding the day-to-day heavy lifting. Some people are more comfortable watching online courses whereas others are more comfortable reading. If you’re new to reading any programming book, I will suggest some beginner-friendly and a few advanced books for you. We will cover the books from a beginner to expert level. So let’s just jump on to the list.
Python Books for Beginners
Python Crash Course by Eric Matthes
This is a very beginner-friendly book. If you have never learned a programming language before and you’re starting to learn python, this one is your perfect match. If you want to learn concepts real quick and start working on building some cool projects, then this is the book of your dreams. This will work for the intermediate learners too.
What this Book Offers?
The book is divided into 2 sections:
- The first section teaches you the basics of python.
- And the second section is the implementation or the fun section. In this part of the book, you work on 3 different projects:
- One deals with game development, you will build a simple Alien Shooter Game using Pygame
- Learn data visualisation by making graphs
- And lastly learn web development using Python’s Framework, Django.
USP: Creates a wonderful balance between the theory and the practical part.
Learn Python 3 The Hard Way by Zed Shaw
This is another book that targets the newcomers in the field. This one even guides on with the basic installation and setup procedure. The author’s approach in this book is very basic yet unique which justifies making your fundamentals strong. The reader can expect to find a lot of information independently.
What this Book Offers?
Following the path of its previous version, this one also shows us that learning by doing is the best practice. It has various ‘exercises’, ‘study drills’, and ‘common student questions’ sections, which are quite informative and helpful. The explanation of most of the topics is not even lengthy, so it becomes easier and enjoyable to follow through for beginners.
USP: Contrary to its title, this book targets newbies and captivates their interests in Python. The section that answers the common student questions is very beneficial. Even school students can start their python journey with this book.
Head First Python By Paul Barry
Another book that targets the new developers in making. It focuses well on the core concepts. The book is unique in the way it teaches you concepts, as it is filled with graphical representation and various illustrations that make the learning path easy. It is the go-to book for the ones who want to learn android development and web development using python. It doesn’t include much information about advanced python, so highly not recommended for all the Pythonistas.
What this Book Offers?
This book works wonders with establishing the first principles of the python programming language at first. The primary goal of this one is to learn by doing. The author has used a unique approach of referencing Flask Framework to explain Python.
USP: In this book, one can find various code snippets which one can find interesting to stick around. Content-wise, it is one of the top-notch books for beginners.
Python for Everybody: Exploring Data in Python 3 By Charles Severance
This book is a very good starting point for students or professionals who wants to learn python programming. It is a very straight-to-the-point book with lots of exercises to practice. As the name hints, it emphasizes more on data exploration with the help of file handling concepts. But if you are a total novice, I highly suggest you give it a try and make your foundation strong.
What this Book Offers?
- This book focusses more on python’s application in data science.
- There are video lectures by Mr Charles himself available on YouTube, which are a great competitor to the book.
- Step by step explanation of the examples can be found in this book.
USP: Very easy to read and understand, and a perfect fit for budding programmers. It is loaded with various simple and real-life examples.
Best Python Books for Intermediate to Advanced Level
Python Cookbook By David Beazly and Brian K. Jones
No wonder you must have seen this book on every other recommendation source. This book is for intermediate to advanced level learners. If you already are pretty much familiar with the core concepts of python, and you just need to brush up on your basics and move on to the advanced topics, then this book is for you. It mainly focuses on tasks common to a wide category of application domains. This book can also be used as a reference for a particular topic.
What this Book Offers?
Justifying the title, this book is comprised of various problem statements along with their solutions. But the interesting thing is they are in the form of recipes. Each recipe starts with a problem statement and contains code samples you can use in your projects, along with a discussion about how and solution walkthrough.
The major part of the book is pretty straightforward. But it will become intense as you go deep. It includes data structures, files, iterators, generators, functions, network, and web programming, utility scripting, testing, debugging, and a lot more. Once you get accustomed to the style of the book, you will be able to produce super elegant code with maximum readability.
USP: The USP of this one is the level of details given to each topic and the problem statement is commendable. Most books don’t talk about the “Why” and this is what this book’s USP is all about.
Python Programming by Mark Lutz
You can pick up this book if you are already aware of the core concepts of python and want to move ahead with bigger projects. This book covers object-oriented programming in detail. It will give you in-depth insights about:
What this Book Offers?
This book is very comprehensive and detail-oriented, definitely not for someone to read superficially.
- Working with GUI using Tkinter
- System Administration
- Command Line Processing
And a lot more advanced concepts to work upon. As per the reviews, the book can be a little over the narrative at times. But the motive of the author to leave no stone unturned in teaching you everything “python” is highly impressive.
USP: This book has a clear differentiation between Python 2 and Python 3. So it eases out your transition from Python 2 to its successor. As it gives solutions to various problem statements using both approaches, it becomes easy to compare and learn.
Fluent Python: Clear, Concise, and Effective Programming By Luciano Ramalho
Finally a book for those who think they know it all, or for the ones who want to dive deep into the world of Python. This is an excellent choice to understand why and how everything works at the backend. This book deeply talks about why everything is associated with python. It can be a challenging book for some, but if you are truly passionate about learning python, and have good basic knowledge about the working concepts, then this book is highly recommended.
What this Book Offers?
Even python professionals with good working experience can get a lot of new information from this book. The author has thoroughly written about stories related to various python modules along with how and when to use them. Patience and consistency will be required to sustain with this book and not make yourself overwhelmed with the information.
USP: Great for Intermediate or Advanced Level Python users. Explains and talks about the “why” of everything Python-related.
A Must Have Python Book
Automate The Boring Stuff With Python By Mark Lutz
No matter if you are a beginner, an intermediate, or even an advanced user. You will learn something that will have tremendous practical usage. This book tops the list of highly recommended python books. The author has done a great job at explaining why python is important, where it all started from. It simply is the best python book when you want to look and understand the dimensions and depth of the python programming language. This book stands out simply because it makes even the newbies astonished with the power of python programming. It gives enormous ideas on how computing tasks can be greatly simplified.
What this Book Offers?
Mark Lutz has made sure to explain each topic by giving references to the day-to-day problems. He has covered several important Python libraries in this one. It provides a clear, concise, and very practical approach to python basics. You will work with web pages, documents, spreadsheets, drawing programs, GUI automation, and a lot more.
USP: You will write the script and build tools that you might need to use on a routine basis. You will get to know the power of python once you read this.
So with that, we have come to an end of this article. Python can be a really fun and easy language to learn. But the only thing needed before starting on this journey is Consistency and Patience. Make sure to bring these things and your journey from a noob to a python developer can be a smooth one. It is such an evolving language that people who have ample experience in the field, are still finding new things to grab upon.
Start with the goal to have a solid foundation at first and focus on the “why” of everything. This thinking approach will develop your mind to understand even the nuances of the language. Make sure to share this article and tell us your opinion on the books mentioned here. Let’s engage in the comments below about which book did you find the most helpful.
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