Book recommendation? For getting up to date

[Jan Erik Moström]

On 16 Feb 2025, at 20:59, dn via Python-list wrote:

> When stop to think about it, this is quite a request:
> don't give me what I do know,
> do give me what I don't know!

😜

> That said, you are correct: the bulk of new publications seem to (still) aim at the Beginner end of the continuum (see later comments).

Yep, I threw away several beginners books in Python last week (they were a bit dated).

My work used to be (and still is, to a small degree) to teach programming to novice students. So, I feel I can skip the basics and go on to the intermediate/advanced stuff.

> Over the period mentioned, Python has changed a great deal - Python 3 (largely) replacing Python 2 was only the most-notable!

Yep, that shift was interesting when teaching novices Python!!

> Books published in 2024 (which I may not have read from cover to cover - yet):
>
> Effective Python: 125 Specific Ways to
> Write Better Python, 3rd Edition
> Brett Slatkin
> Addison Wesley
>
> Hypermodern Python Tooling
> Building Reliable Workflows for an Evolving Python Ecosystem
> Claudio Jolowicz
> O'Reilly
>
> Powerful Python
> Aaron Maxwell
> O'Reilly
> - starts with generators (which you likely haven't met before)

I have done so ... to be really honest, it was when I couldn't remember how to create an iterator for a class I was writing, that I realized that I needed a refresher.

> it's a tremendous challenge to write a book (also involving considerable time and effort) which will return value for more than a few years - particularly at the advanced levels!

True, I'm quite amazed that people write books since it takes such an effort with little, my guess, reward for doing it

> An alternative-approach which may take your fancy, is online courses (many of which can be taken for $free). Their self-paced nature has the advantage of enabling the skipping-over of repetitive content (and the repeating of points which don't immediately 'sink in'). You will find many examples on Coursera* and edX*.

My plan is to find one or two books that seem suitable, when I've looked at those then I'm going online for the rest.

Thanks for the suggestions: I think I now have 2-3 books that I should look into in more detail.

= jem