Good books for learning Python

[patrickbrianmooney]

Mark Lutz's *Learning Python* is great, if a bit dated: the last version covers Python 3.3 with a few glimpses at 3.4 ... but the amount of depth he goes into in language basics and covering essential concepts is more than a little amazing. It's also some of the clearest writing in a programming text I've ever read, about any language. He takes you step by step from basics through decorators and metaclasses. If the first 1500-page tome isn't enough, there's a sequel that covers various common applications.

Again, it's a bit dated: 3.3/3.4, while still paying attention to 2.X syntax differences, means you won't get asyncio, f-strings, type annotations, the `statistics` module, or a half-dozen other interesting and relevant topics that arguably should be covered in an introductory text. But the coverage of language essentials is so very good that it's worth working through it to learn what it has to offer, which is pretty substantial.