Must-Have Python Programming Books

Last updated 1 month, 1 week ago by Daniel Greenfeld 1285.

These are books I've really enjoying having in my career as a professional Python developer.

Rank
Product	Python Pocket Reference	Python Essential Reference (4th Edition)	The Python Standard Library by Example (Developer's Library)	Python Cookbook
Price Range	$10-20	$20-50	$20-50	$20-50
Links	Detail / Buy	Detail / Buy	Detail / Buy	Detail / Buy
rating	[star-5]	[emote-5][star-5]	[star-5]	[star-4]
author	Mark Lutz	David Beazley	Doug Hellmann	Alex Martelli, Anna Ravenscroft, David Ascher
Expert Friendliness	[emote-4]	[emote-5]	[emote-5]	[emote-4]
Beginner Friendliness	[emote-4]	[emote-4]	[emote-4]	[emote-4]
note	I have this weird thing about good pocket references - I find them as useful for learning things about tools as I do the monstrous tomes. This qualifies as one of those super useful references that justifies a purchase. You can't go wrong with this, especially considering the price. Great for picking up core Python built-ins as well as all the the awesome methods on the native types.	This is a great book for programming in Python. It is a library by library reference for programming in Python. In quiet moments I used to slow peruse the pages to make sure I knew all the great bits that Python gives me out of of the box.	Released in early 2011, this is an enormous book but nearly worth the weight. Think of it as combining the cookbook and essential reference and you've got an idea as to what this book gives you. This book is unbelievable in it's depth and quality. The downside of this book is it's gigantic size. I would have liked to have seen this broken up into two volumes.	This will get bumped to 5 stars when it's modernized! Being a series of recipes for solving various problems in Python, this is an amazing, wonderful book. In 2006 for the holidays I landed two copies as presents, and the book is so good I kept them both. One for the office and one for home! This is a great reference and full of wonderful gems and tricks for Python developers of all types.