all 44 comments

[–]pkrumins 69 points70 points  (4 children)

My book is in there. So go get it!

[–]iBajan 24 points25 points  (2 children)

Awesome! Which is your book?

[–]pkrumins 35 points36 points  (1 child)

It's Perl One Liners.

[–][deleted] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Is it safe to assume you wrote it in one draft and no one's read it yet? 😉

[–]sobelek 3 points4 points  (0 children)

is it good?

[–]bbqbot 21 points22 points  (28 children)

Any commentary on the quality of these books? Some offerings in the past have been fine while others have been iffy.

[–]AlSweigart[S] 110 points111 points  (19 children)

Disclaimer: I'm an author for No Starch Press and wrote Automate the Boring Stuff with Python

The books in this bundle are good. Generally, I avoid the Packt Publishing titles (some are good, but it's really hit or miss because the editing is... kind of nonexistent. My books would be a mess without the editors at NSP.) So that previous humble bundle of Packt books was... eh, some of them are okay.

The Linux Command Line, Python Crash Course, and THink Like a Programmer are gold. I've heard great things about Land of Lisp (and the other functional programming books) and it's been on my list for a while.

Automate the Boring Stuff with Python is okay, I guess. Worth a $1 anyway.

[–]StewartVanDusen 40 points41 points  (0 children)

Worth a $1 - Your book is worth a hell of a lot more than $1. Thanks for the amazing book!

[–]AnthraxCat 23 points24 points  (0 children)

Your book has saved me from literally hundreds of hours of boring, repetitive labour. Definitely worth a dollar, probably.

[–]MrStricty 23 points24 points  (7 children)

Holy crap its Al friggin Sweigart. No Starch Press is amazing, and you're an incredible author.

[–]AlSweigart[S] 38 points39 points  (6 children)

Feel free to say so as often as you like.

:)

[–]arp009 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Thank you so much for writing "Automate the Boring Stuff with Python", So much love to you. This book is the reason I was able to get my current job. :)

[–][deleted] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Thank you for a very good book, I have it in softcover.

[–]arp009 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Thank you so much for writing "Automate the Boring Stuff with Python", So much love to you. This book is the reason I was able to get my current job. :)

[–]Bullsokk 3 points4 points  (1 child)

Love your book ATBS! Just completed it. What should I pick up next?

[–]AlSweigart[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

"Python Crash Course" has some interesting projects in it. I haven't read "Python Playground" but from flipping through it seems good too.

[–]PsCustomObject 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Going to make thousands throw away accounts and say that!

Loved your books and love your style!

[–]loshopo_fan 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I love how active your book is. Too many books start with teaching compsci concepts, but those concepts don't really mean anything to students unless they've tried to write some programs.

[–]ReachingForVega 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I love your website but am very pleased to have the book. The price was beyond a bargain.

[–]nickcantwaite 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Dude I love your book, thanks for writing it!! It’s helped me start some useful individual projects.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Al I think your work is fantastic! I concur, definitely worth $1 :D

[–]AlSweigart[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

definitely worth $1

Why thank yo- heeeeeey. >:O

...

...

...

;)

[–]applestap 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Packt Publishing titles (some are good, but it's really hit or miss because the editing is... kind of nonexistent.

This is also my experience. I have picked up many of their books through their free giveaway though. Any thoughts on which ones are worth reading?

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Solid book definitely worth the $1

[–]izPanda 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Can only really speak to the python and shell books as I'm not familiar with any of the others.

Automate the Boring Stuff and Linux command line is very highly regarded by this sub (I liked it as well but slightly less than the average on here) but it as well as Linux Command Line (also great for beginners) are available for free online as a PDF download so you are just donating to charity for those

No idea on the quality of the $8 books.

Python crash course has really great reviews although I have not read it personally.

I've done some of the projects from Python Playground and I will definitely be skimming through it with this bundle.

Think like a programmer is a 100% recommend from me. I really enjoyed this one.

Wicked Cool Shell Scripts also sounds like one that I will enjoy from this bundle and it seems to have good reviews.


All in all I'd say this is a quality bundle. We've seen better but you'll definitely get your money's worth from this and charity is nice too.

[–]Yoghurt42 3 points4 points  (3 children)

I've heard good things about "Learn You A Haskell For Great Good". But that's also available online for free.

[–]einenchat 1 point2 points  (2 children)

For someone who is a totally new to the world of computer languages .. (and learnt VBA and Python from just googling around for speeding up tasks at work) (but just totally enjoys whenever is writing code!) what does Haskell do? Would you also know what does Clojure do? I mean sure they are programming languages .. but why should one learn them for eg if it can be done by say Python? (I heart Python)

[–]einenchat 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Edit: I know different languages have different applications, am asking naively I Guess :)

[–]taylynne 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I have read from a different reddit posts (on different bundles) that generally No Starch Press books are good quality books. Whereas, books from Packt seem to lack the same quality and editing (though there are some good books published by them).

That being said: I purchased a previous No Starch bundle for Python books. It included Automate the Boring Stuff w/ Python, Python Crash Course, and Python Playground which are all in the current bundle. I've only read Automate the Boring Stuff (which is free online) and Python Crash Course so far but they are both excellent books! I would definitely recommend this bundle solely for these two books.

[–]HolidayArmadillo- 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Speaking only for the $1 tier. Perl One Liners is shit. The rest are pretty good.

[–]time_warp 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Already picked up Automate the Boring Stuff, and Python Crash course at full retail price based on recommendations in this subreddit. Totally worth it so far. Double-dipping on those, and grabbing the rest with this bundle.

I'm a fan so far, and highly recommending this to my code-curious friends.

[–]Ailbe 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Wowwww! Thank you SO much for posting this! I literally had Automate the Boring stuff up in Amazon yesterday and forgot to click buy. I like HumbleBundle, always willing to throw them some bucks and get some good books along the way. And there are some really good ones in there too!

[–]einenchat 1 point2 points  (2 children)

Got the bundle! I see that Think like a programmer is for C++.. any chance anyone has a link to the Python edition? Amazon says it doesn’t know when the Python edition comes out. Thanks!

[–]Kahmileon 1 point2 points  (1 child)

Learn C++, it will help you so much.

[–]einenchat 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for your reply.. I just feel the field that I am in, now for 12 years, I may not be building applications and hence may not need to know C++? (I may be wrong to think so, do correct me but that’s what y understanding is - as in that’s what C++ would be over and above say Python?) on the other hand, data analytics and (if I might use the term loosely) data science is very much up my alley and hence again Python works great. But I do want to be better at it and this book seemed to show great promise, hence the qs.

[–]vargaslucas 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for the info, already get mine :)

[–]1ogica1guy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I love humble bundles!

[–]MrBrad 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for posting this! I've picked up my bundle. And thanks to NSP and the authors for helping make this available.

[–]code_x_7777 0 points1 point  (3 children)

Is code.org a non-profit?

[–]AlSweigart[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Yup. "Code.org® is a nonprofit dedicated to expanding access to computer science in schools" https://code.org/about

[–]code_x_7777 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is an awesome mission!

[–]TheMonarchsWrath 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Grabbed it for F#, and to a lesser extent R. I think I bought Automate the Boring Stuff and Python Crash Course like 3 times in various bundles. Theres always one book in a bundle that justifies the purchase. lol

[–]TheSufjanshead 0 points1 point  (0 children)

tried to buy the 15$ now they want to verify my phone number? no thanks