- Rahul Khandelwal
Top 13 Python Books for Beginners/ Pros + Bonus Books for Kids
Introduction
Coding as we know is the new age skill that is one of the most in-demand skills today and its demand is only going to grow as days pass by. As we all know there are many really amazing and powerful languages that programmers use to code namely, Java, C++, Html5, etc but today we are going to talk about Python which is one of the best and one of the most popular if not the most popular programming language out there today.
Python is considered by many to be easier to learn compared to the other languages. Yet Python remains one of the most powerful and feature-rich programming languages in the world. If you too are planning to get started on your journey of learning this really cool programming language then look no further, here are our top 13 recommendations for books that you can read in order to master python in no time.
Please do note that these recommendations are in no particular order so you can read this blog and then choose the book that suits you and your needs the best. All the books recommended below are really really good so continue reading to know more about each book.
Table of Contents
1. Head-First Python 2nd edition
Author- Paul Barry
If you want to learn Python without slogging your way through the unending piles of how-to manuals this book is for you. With this book, you’ll grasp Python’s fundamentals in no time, working with the built-in data structures and functions. Then eventually you’ll move on to building your own web app, exploring database management, exception handling, and data wrangling. If you’re intrigued by what you can do with context managers, decorators, comprehensions, and generators, it’s all here for you to explore and learn about. This second edition is a complete learning experience that will help you become a bonafide Python programmer quickly.
Based on the latest research in cognitive science and learning theory, Head First Python uses a visually rich & pleasing format to engage your brain, instead of a text-heavy approach that makes things boring and makes you wanna go to sleep. You won't waste your time struggling with new concepts. This multi-sensory learning experience is designed to suit and complement the way your brain works.
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2. Automate the Boring Stuff with Python, 2nd Edition: Practical Programming
Author- Al Sweigrat
Some of you must have spent hours renaming files or updating hundreds of spreadsheet cells, you know how annoying and boring tasks like these can be right?. But what if you could have your computer do them for you on its own?
In this fully revised second edition of the best-selling classic book, you’ll learn how to use Python to write programs that do those things in minutes which would take you hours to do by hand and most importantly in order to read this book no prior programming experience required. You'll learn the basics of Python and explore Python’s rich library of modules for performing specific tasks, like scraping data off websites, reading PDF and Word documents, and automating clicking and typing tasks, etc. The second edition of this fan-favorite includes a brand-new chapter on input validation, as well as tutorials on automating Gmail and Google Sheets, additionally tips on automatically updating CSV files. You’ll learn how to create programs that effortlessly perform useful feats of automation like: Searching for text in a file or across multiple files. Creating, updating, moving, and renaming files and folders. Searching the Web and downloading online content. Updating and formatting data in Excel spreadsheets of any size. splitting, merging, watermarking, and encrypting PDFs. Sending email responses and text notifications, Filling out online forms etc.
Step-by-step instructions walk you through each program and updated practice projects at the end of each chapter challenge you to improve those programs and use your newfound skills to automate similar tasks. You shouldn`t waste your time doing work that even a well-trained monkey could do. Even if you've never written a line of code, you can make your computer do the grunt work with the help of this book.
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3. Python Crash Course 2nd Edition
Author- Eric Matthes
This is the 2nd edition of the best selling Python book across the globe. Python Crash Course, 2nd Edition is a very simple and straightforward introduction to the core of Python programming. Author Eric Matthes cuts off the long, boring & unnecessary information that can get in the way of learning python programming, instead, he chooses to provide a really nice foundation in stuff like general programming concepts, Python fundamentals, and problem-solving. There are three real-world projects in the second part of the book that allows readers to apply their knowledge in useful and effective ways. You will learn to create a simple video game, use data visualization techniques to make graphs and charts, and build and deploy an interactive web app. Python Crash Course, 2nd Edition teaches beginners the essentials of Python instantly so that they can build practical programs and develop powerful programming techniques. This book uses Python 3.
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4. Python Cookbook 3rd Edition
Author- David Beazley & Brian Jones
If you need help writing programs in Python 3 or want to update older Python 2 code, this book is just the ticket. Packed with practical recipes written and tested with Python 3.3, this unique cookbook is for experienced Python programmers who want to focus on modern tools and idioms. Inside, you’ll find complete recipes for more than a dozen topics, covering the core Python language as well as tasks common to a wide variety of application domains. Each recipe contains code samples you can use in your projects right away, along with a discussion about how and why the solution works. This book covers the following topics: Data Structures and Algorithms, Strings and Text, Numbers, Dates, and Times, Iterators and Generators, Files and I/O, Data Encoding and Processing, Functions, Classes and Objects, Metaprogramming, Modules and Packages, Network and Web Programming, Concurrency, Utility Scripting, and System Administration, Testing, Debugging, and Exceptions & C Extensions.
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5. Learn Python 3 the Hard Way
Author- Zed Shaw
Zed Shaw has perfected the world's best system for learning Python 3. Follow this book and you will succeed just like the millions of beginners Zed has taught till date! You have to bring discipline, commitment, and persistence; the author supplies everything else you would need. In Learn Python 3 the Hard Way, you'll learn Python by working through 52 brilliantly crafted exercises. Read them. Type their code precisely. Fix your mistakes. Watch the programs run. As you do, you'll learn how a computer works; what good programs look like; and how to read, write, and think about code. Zed then teaches you even more in 5+ hours of video where he shows you how to break, fix, and debug your code–live, as he's doing the exercises.
Install a complete Python environment
Organize and write code
Fix and break code
Basic mathematics
Variables
Strings and text
Interact with users
Work with files
Looping and logic
Data structures using lists and dictionaries
Program design
Object-oriented programming
Inheritance and composition
Modules, classes, and objects
Python packaging
Automated testing
Basic game development
Basic web development
It might seem hard at first. But soon, you'll just get it and that will be the best feeling! This course will reward you for every minute you put into it. Soon, you'll know one of the world's most powerful and popular programming languages. You'll become a Python programmer.
This book Is perfect for total beginners with zero programming experience, junior developers who know one or two languages, returning professionals who haven't written code in years as well as seasoned professionals in the world of programming looking for a fast, simple, crash course in Python 3.
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6. Learning Python 5th Edition
Author- Mark Lutz
In this book, you get a comprehensive, in-depth introduction to the core Python language. This updated fifth edition is based on author Mark Lutz’s popular training course, it will help you quickly write efficient, high-quality Python code. It’s an ideal way to begin, regardless of whether you’re new to programming or a professional developer well versed with other programming languages.
It contains quizzes, exercises, and helpful illustrations, this easy-to-follow, self-paced tutorial gets you started with both Python 2.7 and 3.3 the latest releases in the 3.X and 2.X lines plus all other releases in common use today. You’ll also learn some advanced language features that recently have become more common in Python.
You will learn to explore Python’s major built-in object types such as numbers, lists, and dictionaries. To create and process objects with Python statements, and learn Python’s general syntax model. Using functions to avoid code redundancy and package code for reuse. To organize statements, functions, and other tools into larger components with modules. Dive into classes: Python’s object-oriented programming tool for structuring code. Writing large programs with Python’s exception-handling model and development tools and learn advanced Python tools, including decorators, descriptors, metaclasses, and Unicode processing.
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7. Fluent Python, 2nd Edition
Author- Luciano Ramalho
The 2nd edition of this really popular Python book is going to be available in September 2021 so if you want to get your hands on the latest version of this book then you might have to wait for it a little. Python’s simplicity lets you become productive in no time, but this often means you aren’t using everything it has to offer. With this hands-on guide/book, you’ll learn how to write effective, idiomatic Python code by leveraging its best and possibly most overlooked features. Author Luciano Ramalho takes you through Python’s core language features and libraries and shows you how to make your code shorter, faster, and more readable, precise, and effective at the same time.
Many seasoned programmers try to bend Python to fit the patterns they learned from other languages and never actually discover Python features outside of their experience. In this book, those Python programmers will thoroughly learn how to become proficient in Python 3.
This book covers- Python data model: understand how special methods are the key to the consistent behavior of objects.
Data structures: taking full advantage of built-in types and understand the text vs bytes duality in the age of Unicode.
Functions as objects: view Python functions as first-class objects and understand how they affect popular design patterns.
Object-oriented idioms: building classes by learning about references, mutability, interfaces, operator overloading, and multiple inheritances.
Control flow- leveraging context managers, generators, coroutines, and concurrency with the concurrent. futures and asyncio packages.
Metaprogramming: understanding how properties, attribute descriptors, class decorators, and metaclasses work.
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8. Python Tricks - The Book
Author- Dan Bader
With Python Tricks: The Book you will discover Python's best practices with simple, yet practical and effective examples. You will get really good at Python and you will come a lot closer to mastering Python, so then you can write beautiful and idiomatic code that will come to you naturally. Learning Python is not rocket science but is learning a new language is always difficult at the start but with this book, you'll be able to focus on the practical skills that actually really matter.
If you are wondering which lesser-known parts in Python you should know, you’ll get a good idea with the help of the roadmap with this book. You will discover some cool & practical Python tricks and get ready to blow your coworkers’ and friends` minds. If you’ve got experience with previous versions of Python, this book will get you to speed up with modern patterns and features introduced in Python 3 and backported to Python 2.7. It’ll be a fun way to take advantage of newer improvements in Python, step by step.
If you have experience with other programming languages and you want to get up to speed with Python, you’ll pick up the idioms and practical tips you need to become a confident and effective Python programmer. If you want to make Python your own and learn how to write clean and Pythonic code, you’ll discover best practices and little-known tricks to round out your knowledge in this book. This book will teach you to write beautiful and well-engineered code.
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9. Introduction to Machine Learning with Python
Authors- Andreas Muller & Sarah Guido
Machine learning is an integral part of many commercial applications and research projects nowadays, but this field is not exclusive to large companies that have extensive research teams. If you use Python, even as a beginner, this book will teach you a lot of practical ways to build your very own machine learning solutions. With all the data that is available literally at your fingertips today, machine learning applications are limited only by your own imagination.
Through this amazing book, you will learn the steps necessary to create a successful machine-learning application with Python & the sci-kit-learn library. Authors Andreas Müller and Sarah Guido focus on the practical aspects of using machine learning algorithms, rather than the math behind them which makes things so much easier to comprehend. Familiarity with the NumPy and matplotlib libraries will help you get even more knowledge from this book.
With this book, you’ll learn things like - Fundamental concepts and applications of machine learning, Advantages, and shortcomings of widely used machine learning algorithms. Then you will learn how to represent data processed by machine learning, including which data aspects to focus on. Similarly, you will some really knowledgeable stuff like advanced methods for model evaluation and parameter tuning, the concept of pipelines for chaining models, and encapsulating your workflow, Methods for working with text data, including text-specific processing techniques, and Suggestions and tips for improving your machine learning and data science skills.
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10. Think Python 2nd Edition
Author- Allen B. Downey
If you want to learn to program, starting out with Python is an excellent way to get started. This hands-on guide takes you through Python step by step, beginning with basic programming concepts before moving on to functions, recursion, data structures, and object-oriented design. This is the 2nd edition of this book and its supporting code has been updated for Python 3.
Through exercises during every chapter, you'll be trying out programming concepts as you learn them. Think Python is great for students at the high school or college level, as well as self-learners, home-schooled students, & professionals who need to learn programming basics. Beginners just getting started with programming will learn how to start with Python using a browser.
Start with the basics, including language syntax and semantics you will get a clear definition of each programming concept. In this book, you will also learn about values, variables, statements, functions, and data structures in a logical progression, discover how to work with files and databases, understand objects, methods, and object-oriented programming, use debugging techniques to fix syntax, runtime, and semantic errors along with exploring interface design, data structures, and GUI-based programs through case studies, etc.
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11. Python for Kids (Specifically for kids)
Author- Jason R. Briggs
Python is a powerful, expressive programming language that compared to other languages is easy to learn and really fun to use! Books about learning to program in Python can be kind of dull and boring but this book is enjoyable indeed.
Python for Kids brings Python to life and brings kids and parents into the world of programming. The amazing author of this book Jason R. Briggs will guide you through the basics as you experiment with unique and fun example programs that feature ravenous monsters, secret agents, thieving ravens, etc. New terms are defined well; code is colored, dissected, and explained in quirky & full-color illustrations to keep things fun and on the lighter side.
Chapters end with programming puzzles in order to stretch your brain and strengthen your understanding. By the end of the book, you’ll have programmed two really cool games completely on your own, a clone of the famous Pong and "Mr. StickMan Races for the Exit"—a platform game with jumps, animation, etc.
As you move forward on your programming adventure, you’ll learn how to:
Use fundamental data structures like lists, tuples, and maps
Organize and reuse your code with functions and modules
Use control structures like loops and conditional statements
Draw shapes and patterns with Python’s turtle module
Create games, animations, and other graphical wonders with Tkinter
Why should only adults have all the fun? Python for Kids is your ticket into the amazing world of computer programming.
The code in this book runs on almost anything: Windows, Mac, Linux, even an OLPC laptop or Raspberry Pi!
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12. Computer Coding Python Projects for Kids
Author- DK
Computer Coding Python for Kids has everything you need to master Python which is one of the world's most popular computer programming languages. Python is comparatively easier than other professional coding languages yet extremely powerful. Computer Coding Python for Kids uses a hands-on approach to show how things work, with step-by-step projects that build knowledge gradually but effectively, from simple functions to developing a space treasure game, kids will not only learn essential coding skills but have fun while they learn. Plus there are tips to personalize and adapt each project to encourage creative thinking in the kids. By following the steps and tips from the book kids will be developing amazing games and useful apps quickly.
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13. Python in easy steps
Author- Mike McGrath
Python in easy steps shows you how to program in the powerful Python language, giving complete and precise examples that illustrate each aspect with colorized source code for easy understanding.
It shows how to begin by explaining how to install the free Python interpreter so you can instantly begin to create your own executable programs by following the book's examples. It demonstrates all the Python basics and provides examples of Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) and CGI scripting to handle web form data. The book concludes by showing how you can use your acquired knowledge to create and deploy graphical windowed applications.
As this book is meant for kids it makes no assumption you have previous knowledge of any programming language so it's ideal for the newcomer to computer programming. The Python 3.x language is under active development so frequent new releases are made available as little improvements are made to the language and Python in easy steps, 2nd edition features the very latest versions of Python at the time of publication. This second edition book is updated in order to cover Python 3.7.
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Summary
All the books mentioned above are absolutely amazing and you can trust us on that but we hope y`all have got a good idea about the content and style of teaching Python used by the authors in their respective books. So just see what fits your needs perfectly because every book mentioned above has a unique style and beauty to it. Hope you have a great time learning python.
If you all are interested or know someone who would be interested in doing a certified course in python programming through live online one on one interactive classes then we would highly recommend you all to check out our Python Programming Course which is for kids between the ages of 12-17 years. You can try out our classes for FREE by booking your FREE trial by clicking here. Lastly, do check out our other amazing blogs on everything related to technology, coding, education & communication skills by clicking here.
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