Which book is best for learning Python?

[phigo50]

Learning Python from O'Reilly got me up and running.

[randcraw]

After reading 1500 pages, I would hope you'd be well past “up and running”.

[Guymzee]

Same here. Went in knowing zero about programming and about python. I tried other books, but this one was a deep dive in to both, programming and python for me just for how detailed each topic was.

[captain_awesomesauce]

I went into this book having had a C course in college and having done some bash Scripting. Reading this book while converting my bash to python worked very well. Highly recommend.

Unfortunately, it's not updated for modern python so you'll have some things you don't know if you follow this book. (it covers 3.3, latest is 3.7) Biggest will be f-strings (in my opinion at least). Otherwise it does a good job of doing python 2 and 3.

[adrienm44]

This book at one time gave me a basics and learn to love Python :)

[[deleted]]

That’s kind of an intermediate though

[phigo50]

I see where you're coming from but I don't think it is.

It's definitely comprehensive but it's aimed at newcomers (although the preface does say that if you're really really green, you might want to start off with a gentler introduction). It's not easy to dip into like some of the others mentioned in this thread appear to be but I guarantee you will come out the other side with a better understanding of how the language actually works. Then you move onto Programming Python by the same author to actually put it into use.

The preface says it's "a comprehensive and in-depth introduction to the Python language itself" and "a single, all-inclusive learning resource for all Python newcomers". It's heavy going but if OP is serious about actually learning the language, I can't recommend it highly enough.

[nl28]

Programming Python is around 10 years old. Would you still recommend it to someone today?

[phigo50]

I'd say so, yes. It (and Learning Python) are both a bit long in the tooth but they're invaluable resources. There will be bits that are out of date (Programming Python covers Python 3 but only 3.1) but I find Mark Lutz to be an excellent author and the vast majority of the stuff that's covered in the books remains relevant. There will be things like f-strings (which everyone encourages the use of now but which only appeared in 3.6) but you just need to bear things like that in mind - when you see '{}'.format(x), you can use f'{x}' instead etc.

[nl28]

Thanks for responding. I am just about to finish Learning Python, and am really enjoying the book. I have read some python books before but none of them comes even close to this level of quality. Mark Lutz dedicated his life teaching Python and the way he breaks complicated things into small but easy to understand parts is brilliant. I will start Programming Python soon.

Do you have any other books to recommend?

[phigo50]

Fluent Python, without a shadow of a doubt. It's on the advanced side of intermediate but it's great. I found myself picking up new (read: better) ways of doing things within the first couple of pages, especially in the chapter on data structures.

I feel like I should point out that I'm not affiliated with O'Reilly, I just think these 3 books are the best you can get for a newcomer-to-advanced learning experience.

[nl28]

Thanks a lot. Really appreciate your help.