In Brief
Three popular books to start learning Python:
- Think Python: How to Think Like a Computer Scientist (2nd Edition) by Allen B. Downey
- Python Crash Course (2nd Edition) by Eric Matthes
- Learning Python (5th Edition) by Mark Lutz
Reading List
Think Python: How to Think Like a Computer Scientist (2nd Edition)
by Allen B. Downey
Paperback: 292 pages
Publisher: O’Reilly Media; 2 edition (December 28, 2015)
ISBN-10: 1491939362 | ISBN-13: 978-1491939369
Python Crash Course: A Hands-On, Project-Based Introduction to Programming (2nd Edition)
by Eric Matthes
Paperback: 544 pages
Publisher: No Starch Press; 2 edition (May 3, 2019)
ISBN-10: 1593279280 | ISBN-13: 978-1593279288
Learn Python the Hard Way (3rd Edition)
by Zed A. Shaw
Series: Zed Shaw’s Hard Way Series
Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional; 3 edition (October 11, 2013)
ISBN-10: 0321884914 | ISBN-13: 978-0321884916
Python in 24 Hours, Sams Teach Yourself (2nd Edition)
Author: Katie Cunningham
Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: Sams Publishing; 2 edition (October 11, 2013)
ISBN-10: 0672336871 | ISBN-13: 978-0672336874
Python Algorithms: Mastering Basic Algorithms in the Python Language (2nd Edition)
by Magnus Lie Hetland
Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: Apress; 2nd ed. edition (September 4, 2014)
ISBN-10: 148420056X | ISBN-13: 978-1484200568
Python 3 Object-Oriented Programming: Python 3.8 (3rd Edition)
by Dusty Phillips
Paperback: 466 pages
Publisher: Packt Publishing (October 30, 2018)
ISBN-10: 1789615852 | ISBN-13: 978-1789615852
Learning Python (5th Edition)
Author: Mark Lutz
Paperback: 1600 pages
Publisher: O’Reilly Media; Fifth Edition edition (July 6, 2013)
ISBN-10: 1449355730 | ISBN-13: 978-1449355739
Python Cookbook (3rd Edition)
Author: David Beazley, Brian K. Jones
Paperback: 706 pages
Publisher: O’Reilly Media; Third Edition edition (June 1, 2013)
ISBN-10: 1449340377 | ISBN-13: 978-1449340377
Fluent Python (1st Edition)
by Luciano Ramalho (Author)
Paperback: 792 pages
Publisher: O’Reilly Media; 1 edition (August 20, 2015)
ISBN-10: 1491946008 | ISBN-13: 978-1491946008
Introduction to Machine Learning with Python: A Guide for Data Scientists (1st Edition)
by Andreas C. Müller and Sarah Guido
Paperback: 400 pages
Publisher: O’Reilly Media; 1 edition (October 21, 2016)
ISBN-10: 1449369413 | ISBN-13: 978-1449369415
Discussion
Recent stable releases of Python include:
- 3.7.4 / 8 July 2019
- 2.7.16 / 4 March 2019
When shopping for a book on Python, make sure that the book covers your preferred version of Python, namely 3.x or 2.x. Most recently published books will cover both versions.
Note that support for Python 2.7, which will be the last release in the 2.x series, has been extended to 1 January 2020.
By the way, if you’re going to be heavily using Python for Data Science, you might consider looking into the Anaconda distribution, which bundles some useful tools and manages package dependencies in order to avoid conflict with other versions of Python that you may be running on your system.