I'm looking for a Ruby book for my christmas list

Question

I have a selection of relatives that want to buy me Christmas presents, sadly I can think of only 3 things that I really need (I'm a pretty content person).

However, it occurred to me that I want to learn Ruby a little at some point and getting a Dead tree version of a Ruby book would be useful for that.

As such I'm looking for suggestions for books that I can stick on my Christmas list to learn Ruby.

If anybody has suggestions for other cheapish items that I may not even know I want then feel free to add them too.

Answer 1

Programming Ruby, The Pragmatic Programmers Guide, by Dave Thomas with Chad Fowler and Andy Hunt.

http://www.pragprog.com/titles/ruby/programming-ruby

Answer 2

"If anybody has suggestions for other cheapish items that I may not even know I want then feel free to add them too."

RAM is pretty cheap now.... and its a gift that keeps on giving.

Answer 3

I know Why?s (Poignant) Guide to Ruby is a free download. But if someone were to print it and bind it nicely, it would make a lovely gift for a certain kind of person. (I would be delighted to receive it!)

I'm not sure it's the most efficient way to learn Ruby, but it's a lot of fun.

Edit: I see it's available on Lulu - it's not clear whether the beneficiary is the original author or not.

Answer 4

The Ruby way, second edition is my recent favourite. It recieved a strong 9 (out of 10) on Slashdot.

Answer 5

Programming Ruby aka "The Pickaxe book" by Dave Thomas is definitely worth your money if you want to have a good understanding of Ruby.

Answer 6

While most people will tend to recommend "Programming Ruby" (The Pickaxe) - I find the book not very successful at actually teaching Ruby and the Rubyisms that exist. Granted it's a great book, and it's on my shelf right now - I use it as an language reference all the time. Regardless of your programming level with other languages, I have found great success in recommending Peter Cooper's "Beginning Ruby" to people starting out with Ruby. Get the Pickaxe afterward as it functions as a great reference. Matz's O'Reilly book is also great but I find it can be over some people's head if that's the first one they jump on.

While not a book you might consider joining in on the Free Ruby classes from Ruby Learning (http://rubylearning.org/class/) - you could probably even get started before Christmas without spending any money.

Answer 7

Definitely "The Ruby Programming Language". I have this one as well as the PickAxe. PickAxe is fine for learning how to program using the Ruby language i.e. good tutorial on variables, loops, etc., but will not show you how to code effectively using Ruby. "The Ruby Programming Language" is similar in style to the "C programming language book (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_C_Programming_Language_(book)) i.e. it explains the how the language should be used. It's somewhat terse, but has very good examples and code. Basically, PickAxe is a good intro book, but if you want to get serious learning Ruby, then you'll need to get "The Ruby Programming Language".

Answer 8

Depends on your learning style, of course, but if you want to dive in with a few well-worked practical examples, I highly recommend Everyday Scripting with Ruby by Brian Marick. It's a great introduction to the language with some good practical examples. Combined with the Pickaxe book others have mentioned (which is more of a language reference), you should be good to go.

Answer 9

The Well-Grounded Rubyist is my favorite.