free programming books

This is a list of excellent books on programming that you can find for free -- notable because this is explicitly an intersection of great writing and free resources, rather than just the latter!

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1	Learn You a Haskell for Great Good! by Miran Lipovača 4.31 avg rating — 2,370 ratings score: 690, and 7 people voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
2	Why's (Poignant) Guide to Ruby by Why The Lucky Stiff 4.05 avg rating — 464 ratings score: 596, and 6 people voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
3	Learn Python The Hard Way by Zed A. Shaw 3.87 avg rating — 1,253 ratings score: 592, and 6 people voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
4	Think Python by Allen B. Downey (Goodreads Author) 4.13 avg rating — 1,662 ratings score: 499, and 5 people voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
5	Pro Git by Scott Chacon 4.17 avg rating — 3,380 ratings score: 492, and 5 people voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
6	Clojure for the Brave and True by Daniel Higginbotham 4.27 avg rating — 569 ratings score: 486, and 5 people voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
7	Eloquent JavaScript: A Modern Introduction to Programming by Marijn Haverbeke 4.14 avg rating — 3,188 ratings score: 397, and 4 people voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
8	Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs by Harold Abelson 4.47 avg rating — 4,830 ratings score: 395, and 4 people voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
9	The Ruby on Rails Tutorial by Michael Hartl (Goodreads Author) 4.32 avg rating — 575 ratings score: 298, and 3 people voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
10	How to Design Programs: An Introduction to Programming and Computing by Matthias Felleisen 4.02 avg rating — 270 ratings score: 296, and 3 people voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
11	Learn you some Erlang for great good! by Fred Hebert (Goodreads Author) 4.49 avg rating — 351 ratings score: 291, and 3 people voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
12	Programming Book by NotKlaatu it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating score: 200, and 2 people voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
13	Real World Haskell by Bryan O'Sullivan (Goodreads Author) 3.94 avg rating — 942 ratings score: 198, and 2 people voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
14	Practical Common Lisp by Peter Seibel 4.15 avg rating — 791 ratings score: 100, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
14	Higher-Order Perl: Transforming Programs with Programs by Mark Jason Dominus (Goodreads Author) 4.24 avg rating — 148 ratings score: 100, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
16	Clojure Cookbook: Recipes for Functional Programming by Luke VanderHart 3.72 avg rating — 57 ratings score: 99, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
17	Simply Scheme - 2nd Edition: Introducing Computer Science by Brian Harvey 3.70 avg rating — 30 ratings score: 98, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
18	Python for Informatics: Exploring Information by Charles Severance 3.99 avg rating — 618 ratings score: 97, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
19	Automate the Boring Stuff with Python: Practical Programming for Total Beginners by Al Sweigart (Goodreads Author) 4.28 avg rating — 3,103 ratings score: 95, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
20	The Art of UNIX Programming by Eric S. Raymond 4.18 avg rating — 1,263 ratings score: 94, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
21	Introduction to Networking: How the Internet Works by Charles Severance 4.38 avg rating — 472 ratings score: 91, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

21 books · 27 voters · list created September 5th, 2015 by Melissa (votes) .

Tags: free, programming

57 likes · Like

Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.

People Who Voted On This List (27)

Melissa 2081 books
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Finn 26 books
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Paul 116 books
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Allen 915 books
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kf 379 books
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Cedric 559 books
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Clare 1947 books
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Mike 496 books
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Comments Showing 1-5 of 5 (5 new)

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message 1: by Savannah (new)

Aug 18, 2017 11:16AM

I'm a bit confused as to why the list says these books are 'free'... I am interested in a few books on this list but it doesn't look like they are free?

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message 2: by Melissa (new)

Aug 18, 2017 03:00PM

Natalia wrote: "I'm a bit confused as to why the list says these books are 'free'... I am interested in a few books on this list but it doesn't look like they are free?"

Many are available for purchase, but were also explicitly made available free somewhere on the web at the time the list was made; maybe some changed. Do you have an example?

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message 3: by Savannah (new)

Aug 20, 2017 04:49AM

Melissa wrote: "Natalia wrote: "I'm a bit confused as to why the list says these books are 'free'... I am interested in a few books on this list but it doesn't look like they are free?"

Many are available for pur..."

Thanks for your reply, Melissa. I am interested in the Python books in particular. Book 3 on this list, 'Learn Python the hard way', seems to be available as a free sample only. I found some of the other books though (e.g. numbers 4 and 19 on the list) after a quick search. I should have had a proper look before commenting, sorry for the confusion. Thank you for making the list available! :)

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message 4: by Melissa (new)

Aug 20, 2017 08:24AM

Hey, no worries! I should update the list re: Python the Hard Way and give some explanation, too. Write the Docs, right? Thanks for checking in about it!

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message 5: by Melissa (new)

Nov 30, 2018 06:48AM

Ashley wrote: "Should books that aren't [legally] free anymore be on the list still?"

I don’t think so. Which book(s) should I update, if you don’t mind? Thanks for reaching out!

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