Nerd Library

A really great introduction to Python. This book was required reading for the Python class that was part of the UC Berkeley MIDS curriculum when I went through the program and it really helped cement my fundamental knowledge of the language. I’ve since bought more copies for friends and family looking for a good introduction.

An oldie but goodie. The print version is pretty dated at this point (all the code examples are from Python 2), but a lot of the logic is still relevant and you can get examples updated to Python 3 from the online version of the book: https://www.nltk.org/book/ Frankly, the only reasons to buy the book nowadays would be because it looks great on the shelf and to support the authors.

This one is great for folks who are either looking for a way to understand some of the most common data structures and algorithms used by computer scientists, or are curious about how one might implement them in Python. This book was required reading for the UC Berkeley MIDS program, specifically for the “Fundamentals of Data Structures and Algorithms” bridge course.

Unlike a lot of the others on the list, this book isn’t the kind of thing that you might read cover to cover. Instead, it’s filled with one-off “recipes” for tackling common (and uncommon) problems that might come up from time to time. While Google and ChatGPT implementations might fill that role while you’re actually in the weeds, I use this more like a coffee table book… flipping through it from time to time for inspiration.