Learn Python the Hard Way

"Zed Shaw has written a lot of Learn X the Hard Way books. Initially he put them on his website for free, which is how a lot of people found out about them. He’s experimented with many ways to monetize his work, and I believe the only way to get the books now is to pay for them—but it’s completely worth it! Support Five Books Five Books interviews are expensive to produce. If you're enjoying this interview, please support us by donating a small amount . I chose this book because a lot of other Python books talk about theory, and Learn Python the Hard Way is first and foremost about building things. His approach is to say: ‘Coding is going to suck at first; you’re not going to understand anything. But just do this stuff that I tell you to do, and eventually it’s all going to make sense.’ He goes through all of the building blocks that you need to master Python. It’s been updated for Python 3, which is very important as well. It’s very practical and down to earth, with about 50 to 60 exercises, and it’s written in a way that doesn’t feel overwhelming and that really allows you to go through all of them."