[Tutor] Python Programming Books

[Terry Carroll]

On Thu, 13 Jul 2006, Grady Henry wrote:

> I have three books on Python programming, "Learning Python" by O'Reilly,
> "Beginning Python" by Hetland, and "Python in a Nutshell" by O'Reilly.  
> Are these good (recommended) books?  Any others that might be
> recommended?

I don't know the Hetland book.

I think a book-based approach (which is my favorite approach) to starting 
off in Python requires two books: one to introduce you to the language, 
and one to serve as a reference once your feet are wet.  "Learning Python" 
is an excellent book for the former, and "Python in a Nutshell" is an 
excellent book for the latter.  They're actually my favorites for those 
purposes, although there are certainly others.

I'd go with those for a while and wait until you find your curiosity
taking you into a particular area, whether it's database, Jython, GUI,
XML, patterns, or whatever, and then either get an appropriate book for
where your interests take you, or meybe pick up the Cookbook, which is an
excellent book for browsing and stimulating ideas.