Best Coding Books for Beginners

According to a report done by Business Insider, computer science and coding careers are found within 65% of the fastest-growing skills and 62% of the highest-paying skills in fields. Yet, surprisingly, only 18% of these positions require a computer science degree.

This is the perfect opportunity for you to teach yourself coding by hitting the books or for you to go all-in with a more formal education like a coding bootcamp. 

Bootcamps provide hands-on learning experiences that are cheaper than a four-year college and faster—it only takes about 3-9 months to get the coding skills you need, depending on the program you choose. 

Another quick and easy way to learn to code at your own pace is with coding books for beginners. 

What is the best coding language for beginners?

The best approach to expand your toolkit and hone your skills is to start with a beginner-friendly language and then move on to high-level languages.

Let’s talk a little more about some of the coding languages that are more popular amongst beginners and their pros and cons:

JavaScript

JavaScript is one of the most popular coding languages because of its versatility, which makes it one of the best beginner-friendly languages to learn. In addition, many developers use JavaScript for building websites, web servers, iOS applications, and other mobile apps.

Some of the benefits of JavaScript:

• It’s an easy-to-learn coding language.

• It’s a full-stack language, meaning you can use it server-side (back-end) and in front-end web development.

• It meshes very well with other coding languages so that you can use it in many applications.

Some of the disadvantages of JavaScript:

• Each browser interprets JavaScript slightly differently, making it challenging to write code that works perfectly across all software.

What are the best books to learn JavaScript for beginners?

A SMARTER WAY TO LEARN JAVASCRIPT – Mark Myers

Rating: 4.6/5 stars

With this book, you’ll be spending double to triple your time practicing as much as reading. Instead of being confused or feeling defeated after learning JavaScript, you’ll end up feeling more confident and satisfied. Even though learning isn’t the most entertaining thing that you want to do with your time, this book will make it fun to learn this way, and in the end, you’ll be happy with the impressive results you achieve.

ELOQUENT JAVASCRIPT: A MODERN INTRODUCTION TO PROGRAMMING – Marjin Haverbeke 

Rating: 4.4/5 stars

Eloquent JavaScript dives into JavaScript to show you how to write effective codes. The author, Marjin Haverbeke, plunges your mind deep into JavaScript by showing you example coding from the start of the book, and while you exercise projects, you’ll gain experience with your own usable programs.

JAVASCRIPT AND JQUERY: INTERACTIVE FRONT-END WEB DEVELOPMENT – Jon Duckett 

Rating: 4.6/5 stars

Once you are done reading this book, you’ll be able to use thousands of pre-built scripts, JavaScript APIs, and jQuery plugins that are fully open-source and available on the web. You’ll also learn how to create your own scripts entirely from scratch.

JAVASCRIPT: THE GOOD PARTS – Douglas Crockford 

Rating: 4.4/5 stars

With this book, JavaScript: The Good Parts, you'll find deep interest in a lightweight and highly expressive language that lets you make effective coding and teaches you how to manage object libraries. If you’re wanting to learn JavaScript, or if you’re just trying to make a program run faster, this book is for you.

LEARN JAVASCRIPT VISUALLY WITH INTERACTIVE EXERCISES – Ivelin Demirov 

Rating: 4.1/5 stars

This is a short and simple book for visual learners.

Since visual learners learn and retain information differently than their left-brained counterparts, they benefit greatly from different approaches. With full-color illustrations, they will help trigger responses in your brain, so it almost feels like you’re learning and retaining information without trying.

Python

Python is a popular general-purpose programming language and is the top-choice language for data scientists. Python is used by giant tech companies such as Google and Facebook, and many other companies are switching over to Python for its powerfulness and versatility.

Some of the benefits of Python:

• It can be used for data science, scientific computing, machine learning, analytics, and more.

• According to ZipRecruiter, there’s a high demand for Python developers— 191,000 jobs available (July 2021).

Some of the disadvantages of Python:

• Python’s memory usage is high.

• Multithreading in Python isn’t really multithreading—it’s more single-threading.

What are the best books for beginners to learn Python?

PYTHON CRASH COURSE: A HANDS-ON, PROJECT-BASED INTRODUCTION TO PROGRAMMING – Eric Matthes

Rating: 4.7/5 stars

This book, Python Crash Course, is the world's best-selling guide to the Python programming language. With the help of a fast-paced introduction to programming with Python, you’ll be writing programs, solving problems, and making programs work in no time.

AUTOMATE THE BORING STUFF WITH PYTHON – Al Sweigart 

Rating: 4.7/5 stars

In this book, Automate the Boring Stuff with Python, you'll learn how to use Python to write programs, debug software, and develop new approaches. You’ll be doing more in a few minutes than what would take you hours to do by hand. Best of all, there’s no prior programming experience required!

LEARNING PYTHON – Mark Lutz

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

With Learning Python, get a comprehensive, in-depth introduction to the core Python language. Based on the author Mark Lutz's popular training course, this book will help you quickly write efficient and high-quality codes with Python at a pace that is easy for you to follow along.

HEAD FIRST PYTHON: A BRAIN-FRIENDLY GUIDE – Paul Berry

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

With the help of Head First Python, you’ll quickly be able to grasp Python’s fundamentals by working with the built-in data structures and functions. After you’ve got the gist of Python, you’ll move onto building your own web application, exploring database management, exception handling, and data wrangling.

ELEMENTS OF PROGRAMMING INTERVIEWS IN PYTHON: THE INSIDERS’ GUIDE – Adnan Aziz

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

With this book, Elements of Programming Interviews in Python, you’ll be introduced to the core of EPI collections with over 250 problems along with their detailed solutions. The problems are made to represent interview questions that are most commonly asked at leading software companies.

Ruby

Ruby is another popular programming language, mainly used for web development. Because it’s a practical language to learn, big tech companies like Airbnb, GitHub, and Shopify use Ruby. The community is helpful, so there’s a lot of free and valuable information out there.

Some of the benefits of Ruby:

• Ruby is a good language for web applications, including websites that require databases, content management, and e-commerce functionality. 

• A vast collection of significant companies use Ruby, meaning that the jobs won’t disappear any time soon.

Some of the disadvantages of Ruby:

• Depending on the number of files, it can take a long time to boot up and start.

What are the best books for learning Ruby for beginners?

RUBY FOR BEGINNERS: YOUR GUIDE TO EASILY LEARN RUBY PROGRAMMING IN 7 DAYS – iCode Academy

Rating: 4/5 stars

This book, Ruby for Beginners, plans to direct a total beginner in Ruby programming. This book is specifically created to help the new or unpracticed developer in figuring out how to come up with a code in Ruby. In case you are somebody who in some way or another dislikes learning, then this book can really help you with its special learning methods.

HEAD FIRST RUBY: A BRAIN-FRIENDLY GUIDE – Jay McGavern

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

With this one-of-a-kind involved learning experience, you'll find how Ruby deals with every one of the subtleties for you, so you can essentially have a great time and complete the program using less code.

INTRO TO RUBY PROGRAMMING: BEGINNERS GUIDE SERIES – John Elder

Rating: 4.2/5 stars

Learning Ruby has never been this quick and simple, or fun! Veteran Codemy.com software engineer John Elder takes you bit by bit through the intricate details of Ruby Programming. Composed for the supreme novice, you don’t need any programming experience to make a plunge and start with this book.

THE WELL-GROUNDED RUBYIST – David A. Black AND Joseph Leo III

Rating: 4.6/5 stars

The book, The Well-Grounded Rubyist, is a flawlessly written instructional book that starts with your first Ruby program and takes you right to complex subjects like reflection, stringing, and recursion.

RUBY: LEARN RUBY IN 24 HOURS OR LESS – Robert Dwight

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

In this book, you will track down the major parts of the Ruby programming language. It will clarify speculations and exercises through nitty-gritty directions and commonsense models. With this eBook, you'll figure out how to get a hang of Ruby, how to compose explanations, and how to utilize this language in making your own projects.

Java

Java is a widely-used programming language that is used in website and application development. Even though it’s an older coding language, there is still a high demand for Java developers because of the complexity of the language. It isn’t the most user-friendly, but after getting to know it better, you’ll see that it can be applied to many situations.

Some of the benefits of Java:

• Java allows you to form standard programs and reusable codes for future projects.

• Java runs on any machine that doesn’t need any special software to be installed.

Some of the disadvantages of Java:

• Java is a memory-consuming language that is significantly slower than other languages.

What are the best books for learning Java for beginners?

HEAD FIRST JAVA – Kathy Sierra

Rating: 4.4/5 stars

This book, Head First Java, comes with puzzles, solid visuals, secrets, and possible interview questions with popular Java objects to draw in you from multiple points of view. It's quick, it's fun, and it's compelling.

EFFECTIVE JAVA: A PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE GUIDE – Joshua Bloch

Rating: 4.6/5 stars

This book, Effective Java, unites 78 crucial software engineer's general guidelines: working, best-practice answers for the programming difficulties you experience each day.

LEARN JAVA IN 1 DAY: COMPLETE BEGINNER'S GUIDE – Krishna Rungta 

Rating: 4.3/5 stars

This book will acclimate you with different Java coding ideas like choices, circles, clusters, techniques, factors, lambda articulations, and so on. Just as a concise prologue to different systems, it upholds Java SE8, Java Swing, Java Oracle, Java Eclipse, and so on.

CORE JAVA VOLUME 1 — FUNDAMENTALS – Cay Horstmann

Rating: 4.6/5 stars

Regardless of whether you're utilizing Java SE 9, 10, or 11, this book will assist you with accomplishing a profound and commonsense comprehension of the language and API, and its many reasonable models that uncover the most impressive and viable approaches to take care of your software business.

MASTERING JAVA MACHINE LEARNING: A JAVA DEVELOPER’S GUIDE TO IMPLEMENTING MACHINE LEARNING AND BIG DATA ARCHITECTURES – Dr. Uday Kamath

Rating: 3.6/5 stars

This book will take you through a variety of cutting-edge methods in AI, including order, bunching, oddity identification, stream learning, dynamic learning, semi-regulated learning, probabilistic diagram demonstrating, text mining, profound learning, enormous information group, and stream AI.

PHP

PHP has been around for over two decades and has gained an army of supporters due to its power and reliability. 

Some of the benefits of PHP:

• There are many available specialists along with a large base of references and educational materials.

• PHP offers inexpensive website hosting, flexibility, combinability, open-source add-ons, better loading speeds, and much more.

Some of the disadvantages of PHP:

• There is a gradual decrease in popularity over the last few years.

• With PHP, there is a lack of specialized libraries and security problems that haven’t been fixed.

What are the best books for learning PHP for beginners?

THE JOY OF PHP: A BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO PROGRAMMING INTERACTIVE WEB APPLICATIONS WITH PHP AND MYSQL – Alan Forbes

Rating: 4.1/5 stars

You start with the simple stuff—like how to make and run straightforward PHP scripts that change website pages—and afterward expand on what you've realized through a progression of firm (and fun) practices that extend from one exercise to another.

PHP & MYSQL: NOVICE TO NINJA – Kevin Yank

Rating: 4/5 stars

This book, PHP and MySQL: Novice to Ninja, is a commonsense manual for learning every one of the devices, standards, and methods expected to assemble a completely utilitarian data set driven site utilizing PHP and MySQL.

HEAD FIRST PHP & MYSQL: A BRAIN-FRIENDLY GUIDE – Lynn Beighley

Rating: 4/5 stars

Loaded with realistic coding models, this book shows you every one of the basics of worker side programming, from the essentials of PHP and MySQL coding to cutting edge themes, for example, structure approval, meeting IDs, treats, data set questions and joins, document I/O tasks, content administration, and that's just the beginning.

PHP: A BEGINNER’S GUIDE – Vikram Vaswani

Rating: 3.9/5 stars

Covering the most recent arrival of this cross-stage, open-source prearranging language, this book, PHP: A Beginner's Guide, shows you how to compose fundamental PHP projects and upgrade them with further developed highlights, for example, MySQL and SQLite information base combination, XML info, and outsider expansions.

PHP IN ACTION: OBJECTS, DESIGN, AGILITY – Dagfinn Reiersol 

Rating: 3.8/5 stars

With this book, you’ll learn about object-oriented programming and help manage complexity by keeping components cleanly separated. As unit testing helps prevent endless, exhausting debugging sessions, this book will teach you that refactoring keeps code supple and readable. PHP offers all this and more.

When you're ready to learn more coding…

After you’ve had some coding experience with these books, try a free coding lesson from a coding bootcamp. It’s a great way to decide if you want to sign up for a coding bootcamp if you’re looking to start a career in software engineering. 

Check out the curriculum or book a 10-minute chat with admissions today. 

Disclaimer: The information in this blog is current as of September 14, 2021. Current policies, offerings, procedures, and programs may differ.