Best Books to Learn Python

In this article, we will highlight some of the best collections of the books to learn Python. We will provide you a complete review of the books, the topic covered, and the context used to demonstrate those topics.

There are various factors that affect the book’s qualities such as style, presentation of book, reader’s background, topic explanation, etc.

Introduction

Python is the most versatile and amazing programming language. It can be used in every possible technical domain as rapid development and debugging, data science, web development, and a vast community.

The initial and vital step is to find a suitable resource to learn any new skill. Learning Python is like learning a new skill. A good resource makes the process of leaning easier. Fortunately, there are many books that will help to learn the basic concept and also advance of Python programming language. With plenty of resources, it can be really hard to find best book among them.

We have defined the books based on of following categories.

• Python introductory books for those who are new to learn or beginners.
• The best Python books for kids.
• If someone has the basic knowledge of Python and wants to dig deeper to enhance the efficiency of code then check the best intermediate and advanced Python books.

Below are the best Python books for kids, absolute beginners and expert programmers. The Python community recommends these books.

Best Python Books for Beginners

In this section, we figure out the best books for beginners if you are new to the Python then you can prefer these books.

1. Python Crash Course

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Python Crash Course is written by Eric Matthews. This book includes a fast-paced and complete introduction to Python. It is a best book for beginners who wish to learn Python and write useful programs.

This book has 560 pages (can vary) and divides into two parts.

This first part primarily focuses on Python’s most basic concept, such as data-types, operators, working through variables, strings, numbers, lists, and tuple with a suitable example.

In the other section, topics like conditional statements and logical tests are concealed by the Python loop statements.

This book also defines functions, classes, and file handling, oops concepts and testing and debugging. We learn the working of a Python program and learn how to write short, clean and effective code. In the other section, you can learn the use for libraries or tools such as Numpy and matplotlib and create a magnificent visualization.

In the second part of the book, three major projects will enhance practical knowledge. Readers will also learn about 2D game development and web application and how to create them. This book provides complete guidance to install Django, set up a project, designs a model and many more related to web development.

This book is nicely organized and well-written. There is a wide range of exercises as well as challenging projects. It is one of the best books for beginners recommended by Python programmers.

2. Head-First Python, 2^nd Edition

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Head-First Python is written Paul Barry. It is the best book for beginners. It offers a fast and informal way to learn Python’s basic without having to effort through counterproductive tutorials and books. If you want to learn a thing in small chunks, fairly self-contained at a time, and want to learn with the example. Then, it is the best book for you. This book explains Python variables, data types, operators, lists and how to manipulate them.

Then, it goes to the file handling, exceptional handling and modules. Each topic includes exercises. A combining project is building a website for a school athlete coach using Python by a CGI (Common Gateway Interface).

Paul Barry works as a lecturer at the Institute of Technology Carlow in Ireland. He had years of experience in the I.T. industry. He has written many books such as First Head Programming, Head First Python and Programming the Network with Perl. Head First is an excellent book and contains interesting topics with the proper example.

3. Python Programming : An Introduction to Computer Science (3^rd Edition)

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Python programming is written by John Zelle which is the third edition of the original Python programming book. This book defines the entire Python topics introduction to the intermediate level. It also includes computer science, programming and other advanced concept related to Python. This book is the most suitable for beginners.

This book is very stimulating and engaging. No one will feel bored while reading it. The third edition of these books is much successful, followed the path concealed by the first edition.

This book follows the time-tested approach to explain the computer science-related concept. The author modifies the third edition by removing the use of Python eval() function and a section that discussed its disadvantages.

But it includes many useful examples.

4. Learn Python the Hard Way

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This book is written by the Zed A. Shaw. The word “Hard” in title may seem difficult for the beginners, but it is not like that. This is an author’s way of using instruction to make thoroughly go through the chapters and practice what we have learned so far.

This book presents the fundamental concept of Python much effectively for the beginners. It sets a level basic to the complex topics. This book also includes the many instructions and exercise to enhance the Python knowledge. Keep aside the title; this book is very effective for the beginners.

5. A Byte of Python

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A Byte of Python is written by C.H. Swaroop. It is the best book for the beginner audience to an understanding of a Python language. This book is on the latest Python version but it also helps to adapt the older version of the Python.

Apart from the English language, this book is available in 25 languages, including Swedish, Turkish, German, Ukrainian, French, Spanish, Russian, Portuguese, and Korean. We can assume the popularity of this book by availability in several languages.

This book is translated by the vigorous community members who dynamically work to keep the edits going on as the book is updated.

This book starts with the introduction chapters of Python including installation guide, variables, data types, operators, and data structures. It also describes how Python has emerged as one of the most popular and useful programming languages in the programming world. Then, it shifts on to the Python advance concept and describes in the details, along with the example.

6. Learning with Python: How to Think Like a Computer Scientist

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“Learning with Python” is written by Allen Downey, Jeff Elkner, and Chris Meyers. This book includes an introduction to Python programming and a practical approach to the language to create real-word programs. This book is divided into 20 sections and contains a contribution list. First, it explains Python’s basic concept; then it moves on to the oops concepts, lists, stacks, queues, trees, and debugging. This book is freely available in various formats, including PDF, Postscript, HTML, and Gzipped Rar. It is also translated into various languages such as German, Italian, Spanish, and Czech.

If we compare it with a similar book, it doesn’t go deep into some more advanced areas. It focuses on basic Python programming in a clear, straightforward and extensive way.

7. Automating Boring Stuff with Python

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This book is written by the Al Sweigart. The author says – “Don’t spend your time doing work 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.”

The motive of this book is to cut off the repetitive task or say, “not this again.” This book primarily focuses on eliminating repetitive tasks. It covers all necessary basic of the Python language. This book includes some nifty snippets of Python. These snippets help to automate a simple but boring task to be done in seconds instead of hours. It is an ideal book for beginners.

Best Python Programming Books for Advanced Programmers

In this section, we have listed below best Python books for advanced programmers.

8. Introduction to Machine Learning with Python: A Guide for Data Scientist

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This book is written by Sarah Guido and Andreas C. Muller. Python is the most suitable language for machine learning. Nowadays, machine learning is getting much popular with emerging Artificial Intelligence. This book precisely defines how to build machine learning projects using the Python programming language. Machine learning is an integral ingredient of many commercial applications and projects and numbers of applications are rising over the years.

We learn to develop a rich machine-learning application using Python with step by step guide. This book explains machine learning libraries such as sci-kit-learn, scipy. It also defines fundamental concepts and uses of machine learning. Later, we learn the machine learning algorithms, the concept of pipelines, and advanced concepts for model evaluation.

If we summarize, this book is very helpful to enhance the data science and machine learning skills.

9. Fluent Python: Clear, Concise, and Efficient Programming

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‘Fluent Python’ is written by Luciano Ramalho. This book is best for who has solid foundation in basics of Python and wants to takes their skills to the next level. This book is also referring to the experienced programmers. It is well organized and well written so that each topic can read independently. After reading Fluent Python, we can write clear shorter, faster and readable code.

This book covers advanced topics such as data structures, functions as objects, object oriented idioms Python data models and metaprogramming. Below are the features of the Python language.

• Preface – It introduces Python’s object oriented nature very efficiently.
• Function as Objects – It describes the concerns of functions being first-class objects.
• Control Flow – It covers the concepts of generators, context managers, yield statement, and concurrency using
• Metaprogramming – It also discovers the unknown aspect of classes, properties, discussing dynamic attributes, class decorators and attributes description.
• Data Structure – It covers sets, mapping, mutability, and sequences in the Python language.

This book sets itself a most demanding language by defining code with examples and numbered call-outs lines of code to helpful descriptions. The writer of this book Luciano Ramalho was a web developer who also has worked with most substantial news portals in Brazil. Now, he has his own Python training company.

10. Programming Python : Powerful Object-Oriented Programming

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Programming Python is written by Mark Lutz. This book is ideal for those who have basic knowledge of Python programming and willing to learn advance concept of Python. This book includes deep discussion on various domains such as GUIs, the web, and system administration. This book also covers text processing, networking, database using Python, front-end scripting layers, and much more.

It follows the specific approach to explain the commonly used tools, and programming techniques. Here, we find the many useful examples that show precise usage and common solutions.

11. Python Cookbook : Recipes for Mastering Python 3

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‘Python Cookbook’ is written by David Beazley and K. Jones. This book helps us to master our Python programming skills. This book includes recipes for an experienced programmer to take their skill to the zenith. It consists of modern tools and idioms rather than just standard coding. This book covers variety of topics, usage, and also large number of application domains.

Many topics are covered in this book, such as string, data structures, functions, iteration, modules, classes, concurrency, testing and debugging. There are suitable examples of each recipe, which helps reader to adapt the topic more efficiently.

As we know Python has vast community across the world. Python Cookbook is based on recipe which is a solution to many problems faced by the community. The author has targeted experienced Python developers looking to strengthen their understanding of various modern techniques in Python. This book also covers the introductory topics for absolute beginners.

12. Effective Python: 59 Ways to Write Better Python

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This book is written by the Brett Slatkin. There are 59 independent articles that use to develop an understanding the core concept of the Python. It includes practices, lesser known functionality, and built-in tools. It begins with the simple topics and ending with the more complex and typically overlooked concept of classifying memory leaks.

Each article is defined with the proper coding example, discussion, and list of thing to remember.

Its independent articles provide the facility to focus on the topics that most applicable and interesting. We need to read one article at a time. Each article is two or four page lengthy.

The articles are grouped into the following chapters.

• Python Thinking – It provides information regarding perform common tasks and how Python is implemented.
• Functions – It defines how we can use the functions to clarify intention, reduce bugs, and how reuse the functions.
• Classes and Inheritance – It includes the best article on the Python classes.
• MetaClasses and Attributes – This book defines metaclasses, how to use them to write multi-threaded functionality.
• Concurrency and Parallelism – This chapter helps to create multi-threaded application in Python.
• Built-in Modules – It provides the basic introduction of Python built-in libraries.
• Collaboration – This chapter discusses the proper documentation, packing and dependencies.
• Production – It covers the much advance topic such as optimization, testing and memory utilization.

Best Python Books for Kids

We have listed below Python books for the kids.

13. Python for Kids: A Playful Introduction to Programming

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‘Python for Kids’ is written Jason R. Briggs. This book is primarily focused on to teach Python to the kids in fun way. Despite its title, this book is for all ages. It includes the clear, easy, and comprehensive Python introduction. This book is straightforward and clear examples. It’s a solid guide for someone who wants to get a good grounding in the Python basics.

In the beginning, we learn about the installation of Python on various operating systems such as Windows, Ubuntu Linux, OS X, etc. Then, it goes on to explain the introduction and use of the Python shell. Here we find the introduction some basic topic like variables and arithmetic operations.

In the first part of this book, there are two fun application projects. The first project is to build a single-player version of Pong, called Bounce. While building this project, reader will learn about the functional programming, classes and control flow. It also involves task of creating an interface using Tkinter.

The second project is to build side-scrolling video games. This book applies many same concepts and tasks as Bounce with more depth and increased complexity. We also come across the open source image manipulation program GIMP. This book is perfect if you are looking for a fun, introduction to Python programming.

14. Teach Your Kids to Code: A Parent-Friendly Guide to Python Programming

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This book is written by Bryson Payne. It is similar to the Python for kids but intended to work with a child (or children) to learn code. This book is a well written and effective way to teach children with problem-solving skills. This book also includes two projects.

The first activity is a turtle graphics library. The turtle library has a number of basic designs as drawing a rotated square, circle, rectangle, etc. This section improves the general concept related to Python graphics module.

In the next section, the variables, calculations and mathematics in Python are defined. The code explanation is very clear with explicit line-by-line details. While working with the turtle library, reader can improve the concepts like classes, functional programming, etc. What makes it the best book is its large number of programming challenges and the excellent summaries at the end of each chapter.

15. Python in Easy Step

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This book is written by Mike McGrath. It is suitable not only for children but also for middle school and up students. This book is well written and author has defined the coding concept in small, comprehensible chunks. This book covers the following topics majorly.

• Variables
• Arithmetic Operators
• String
• Lists
• Tuples
• Dictionaries
• Turtle Library
• Conditional Statements
• Loops
• Functions
• Modules and More

This book builds the strong foundation of Python programming language.

Conclusion

We have defined a few excellent Python books for all types of readers. It is hard to select which book is best for among them, but it depends on their choice. We define these books based on the three types of readers. If someone is beginner, check the best Python books for the beginner and if you have basic knowledge of Python then try the best books for advance learner. Hope, this article will help you find best Python book.