3 Books You Must Read To Kick Off Your Coding Journey
Over the past 3 years, I have read countless books while teaching myself to code.
Unfortunately, not all were valuable. Some were dry while others were downright confusing. I'll save you months (potentially years) of wasted time by focusing on the following 3 books instead.
They're well worth the time.
Book #1: Learn Python the Hard Way by Zed Shaw
I first read this book in 2019 and it was by far the most important book in my journey
It gets right down to business and teaches you 3 key things:
How to develop a daily coding habit. The exercises are paced beautifully and you build up to making coding part of your day-to-day life.
The sometimes boring but critical basics. You will have a solid grasp of syntax, key concepts, and the command line.
How to figure stuff out for yourself. The reason it is called "the hard way" is that you are sometimes forced to go off and find answers for yourself. Ask any programmer. This is essential to learn.
Book #2: Automate The Boring Stuff With Python by Al Sweigart
I once read that when starting out you shouldn't learn to code, you should learn to automate instead.
This concept took my solid grasp of the fundamentals from the first book and put me on a rocket ship. It gave me my first glimpse into understanding how much leverage I could gain with programming.
Get more of your life back. Learn to automate!
Book #3: Learn More Python The Hard Way by Zed Shaw
No. This is not the same book as the first one. Yes. It is completely worth it.
You should now have an understanding of the basics and have been applying those to some real-world gains in terms of automating. Now is a good time to dive into how to build out larger games and applications.
This book is the perfect final beginner step.
With these 3 books under your belt, the possibilities are endless.