"What book should I get?" seems to be one of the most popular questions on the mailing lists for both Ruby and Rails. I like to think that I stay on top of the Ruby and Rails book market, and so I thought I'd prepare a few bibliographies or curriculums or, if you like, big fat lists of books. I suggest following these in order for the most part, but if you're wild and crazy, feel free to ignore that.
Note: The title links are affiliate links; if you don't like that, then the links provided after the information are non-affiliate links.
Based on skill level
No programming experience
Learn to Program
by Chris Pine
This book walks you through the fundamentals of programming using Ruby. It's a great start to programming if you're ultimate goal is to learn Rails or simply to use Ruby. (link)
Beginning Ruby
A slightly higher level read; it serves as a good basis for learning and as a nice reference. (link)
The Ruby Way
This book is one of the very few books out there that teaches you solid, idiomatic Ruby. Highly recommended once you're comfortable with the basics. (link)
Ruby for Rails
David does an excellent job of walking you through Ruby, and his section on dynamic programming is the best I've ever read. It's an excellent read if you're working towards Rails. (link)
Moderate programming experience
Learning Ruby
I suggest these two because they're slim volumes; you don't need a lot of coddling if you already know the basics of programming. Most of your questions will not be "How do I do (x)?" but "How do I do (x) in Ruby?"
The Ruby Way
This book is one of the very few books out there that teaches you solid, idiomatic Ruby. Highly recommended once you're comfortable with the basics. (link)
Ruby by Example
A good look at Ruby through examples; it's a nice reference that's a little more practical than the cookbooks for the most part. (link)
Advanced programming experience
The Ruby Way
You don't need any coddling: "Just show me the Ruby way and shut it!" (link)
Ruby Cookbook
O'Reilly's cookbooks are a great reference once you know the language well enough to apply the recipes. (link)
Ruby in Practice by Jeremy McAnally and Assaf Arkin
My other book. :) It's a "higher level" cookbook for bigger "businessy" (technical term, I know) topics. Learn about practical topics like databases, reporting, automating communication, and so on. Also has a nice introductory section on some advanced Ruby topics. (link)
Programming Ruby
The "tome" of Ruby programming. I find it's teaching methods hard to get through unless you already know programming well, but it's incredibly useful as a reference. (link)
Based on role or task
The System Administrator
Practical Ruby for System Administration
Learn just what you need to know to start writing Ruby scripts. Not a comprehensive introduction, but still useful for those who don't plan on developing any heavy duty applications with Ruby. (link)
Everyday Scripting with Ruby
Another "just enough Ruby" book targeted at testers and sysadmins. It's a great little manual (I own a copy myself). (link)
Ruby Cookbook
Useful for looking up specific topics, and you can pick up a few useful techniques from it, too. (link)
Programming Ruby
It's always nice to have a quick little reference for a language's syntax. (link)
The Java Guy
From Java to Ruby
Primarily aimed at managers, it can still give you either (a) a nice volume to give to your manager or (b) some good information to arm yourself with if you foresee a struggle with Ruby adoption. (link)
Rails for Java Developers
A great book about Rails targeted specifically at Java developers. (link)
The Ruby Way
Learn the Ruby way of doing things and learn it right the first time. (link)
The PHP Guy
Learning Ruby
Again, the smallest Ruby books that are good because PHP guys probably won't be as interested in learning Ruby as they are learning Rails.
Rails for PHP Developers
This book is a long way off (February 2008), but it looks like it should be a great introduction to Rails targeted at migrators from PHP. (link)
Agile Web Development with Rails
The "official" Rails book; it's a good introduction to Rails, especially if you're familiar with Ruby. (link)
To Learn Rails
After learning Ruby
Agile Web Development with Rails
Probably the best book on Rails; at least useful as a reference if you hate the API documentation. (link)
Rails Recipes
The best Rails cookbook that I've found. The O'Reilly one is nice, too, but I prefer Rails Recipes to it. (link)
The Rails Way
Think The Ruby Way but for Rails. I know Obie to be a great Rails developer (and he works at Thoughtworks!), so I'm sure this will be good when it's released November 20th. (link)
While learning Ruby
Ruby for Rails
David does an excellent job of walking you through Ruby and into Rails. (link)
Programming Ruby
Just in case something slips your mind. (link)
Agile Web Development with Rails
The official Rails book; pair this with the API documentation for Edge Rails for maximum effect since a lot has changed. (link)
Rails Recipes
The Pragmatic Programmer's Rails cookbook; very nicely selected recipes in my opinions. (link)
The Rails Way
Think The Ruby Way but for Rails. (link)
For advanced Rubyists
To hone your Ruby...
The Best of Ruby Quiz
If you haven't ever done a Ruby Quiz, then you should. I used to try to keep up with them every week, but I've lost track of it in recent months. This book is a compilation of some of the best Ruby Quiz quizzes. (link)
Ruby in Practice by Jeremy McAnally and Assaf Arkin
My other book. :) It's a "higher level" cookbook for bigger "businessy" (technical term, I know) topics. Learn about practical topics like databases, reporting, automating communication, and so on. Also has a nice introductory section on some advanced Ruby topics. (link)
- I'll take any suggestions for this section you might have...
To hone your Rails...
Ajax on Rails
A great book on writing AJAX applications with Rails; I just got around to reading this recently and thought it was really helpful to workout some of the grey areas. (link)
Rails Cookbook
The O'Reilly Rails cookbook; a really comprehensive volume. (link)
Advanced Rails Recipes
The recipe list for this book due out on December 15 looks great; I really look forward to seeing if this is as good as the first one. (link)
To be a more well-rounded Ruby developer
The Practice of Programming
Brian Kernighan (of K&R/The C Programming Language fame) teams up with Rob Pike to write a really, really good book on good practices for programming. This offers a really wide scope introduction to a lot of topics, and it's something I recommend that you read first if you're not a very well rounded developer. It's based on C/C++ but the concepts are easy enough to translate to Ruby for the most part. (link)
Beautiful Code
A collection of essays from a lot of computer science luminaries (including Matz, the author of Ruby). I'm reading through this currently and it's shaped up to be a great collection of essays on writing...beautiful code. (link)
The Pragmatic Programmer
This book was written 8 years ago but everything inside still has value. This is a must have for any self-respecting developer. (link)
Write Great Code: Volume 1
I just started these books, but I think they're going to turn out to be excellent overviews of the structure of computers. So many times we get caught up in our abstractions, we forget there's a machine under there, and our code would probably work better if we thought about it once in a while.
To be a more well-rounded Rails developer
RESTful Web Services
An excellent book on REST, with examples in Ruby and others. I'm about half way through and it's cleared some of the murk away from REST for me. (link)
Prioritizing Web Usability
The standard book on web usability. Developers typically like to push concerns such as usability off to designers, but it's also our responsibility to create usability compliant markup. This book is more or less geared towards design, but it will work until the Pragmatic Programmers can get their usability book out the door. (link)
And best of all...
The $0 Ruby and Rails curriculum
_why the lucky stiff's poignant guide to ruby or The Humble Little Ruby Book or The Little Book of Ruby
Three free Ruby books, from craziest to least crazy. Some people prefer _why's style, others hate it. Take your pick. :)
A free version of the Pickaxe. This version is based on Ruby 1.6 (we're at 1.8.6 now), but most of it still holds true.
The Ruby API documentation is a great reference; this is more up to date than the reference in the free Pickaxe.
Build Your Own Ruby on Rails Web Applications
Sitepoint's Rails book is free for a little while longer, so you'd better grab it while you can!
The Official Rails API or The Edge Rails API provided by Caboose
The Rails API documentation is more up to date than the Rails book, and the Caboose version of the documentation is generated often to keep up with recent changes in Edge Rails.
And that's it! Let me know of any suggestions you have and I'll consider adding them.
Lots I need to blog about, and so little time and energy to do so! For this entry, though, I'll just mention that my book