# Ruby Book List

## Learning Ruby

You're taking your first steps into Ruby

### [The Well Grounded Rubyist](https://www.amazon.com/Well-Grounded-Rubyist-David-Black/dp/1617291692)

A good introduction to programming in general. Easy on newer programmers.

### [Eloquent Ruby](https://www.amazon.com/Eloquent-Ruby-Addison-Wesley-Professional/dp/0321584104)

A good introduction to Ruby and its' style. Slightly more in depth than the Well Grounded Rubyist as far as language tricks.

### [Programming Ruby](https://www.amazon.com/Programming-Ruby-1-9-2-0-Programmers/dp/1937785491)

The pickaxe book, written by some of the best in the industry and often mentioned as the de-facto starting point

### [An Illustrated Guide to Ruby](https://baweaver.gitbooks.io/an-illustrated-guide-to-ruby/content/)

An illustrated guide to Ruby written by yours truly. Currently a work in progress, but aims to teach Ruby to complete beginners using pictures of Lemurs and various programming concepts.

## Intermediate Ruby

You've got the basics, now it's time to refine them a bit and get your references

### [POODR](https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Object-Oriented-Design-Ruby-Addison-Wesley/dp/0321721330)

Practical Object Oriented Design in Ruby covers how OO should work in Ruby and helps you on your way to leveraging that power.

### [Design Patterns in Ruby](https://www.amazon.com/Design-Patterns-Ruby-Russ-Olsen/dp/0321490452)

The GoF book comes to Ruby. Be forewarned that you should read POODR first and take some of these patterns with a heavy grain of salt.

### [Confident Ruby](https://www.amazon.com/Confident-Ruby-Patterns-Joyful-Coding-ebook/dp/B00ETE0D2S)

Learn how to write Ruby confidently, avoiding patch hacks and ugly kludgery.

### [Exceptional Ruby](https://pragprog.com/book/ager/exceptional-ruby)

Making code work is one thing, making it behave itself with failure? Learn about Ruby exceptions and their power.

## Doing things with Ruby

So you've learned Ruby, now what?

### [Wicked Cool Ruby Scripts](https://www.amazon.com/Wicked-Cool-Ruby-Scripts-Steve-ebook/dp/B002N3M6SG)

Get a feel for some more practical Ruby usage

## Advanced Ruby

Using the advanced features of the language or just outright difficult concepts.

### [Metaprogramming Ruby](https://www.amazon.com/Metaprogramming-Ruby-Program-Like-Pros/dp/1934356476)

Want to learn some black magic in Ruby? All of that meta-goodness that you've heard about explained in depth.

### [Understanding Computation](https://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Computation-Machines-Impossible-Programs-ebook/dp/B00CT3C4IM)

Learn the foundations of Computer Science in Ruby.

### [Ruby Under a Microscope](https://www.amazon.com/Ruby-Under-Microscope-Illustrated-Internals-ebook/dp/B00GK5P6L2)

Take a look at what makes Ruby tick, all the way down to its' compilation.

### [Kestrels, Quirky Birds, and Hopeless Egocentricity](https://leanpub.com/combinators)

If you thought that Metaprogramming Ruby was trippy, stay away. This book covers functional combinators in depth in Ruby and gives you a view of what lambdas can really do. Not for the faint of heart, this book has some incredible ideas and writing.

## Testing

### RSpec

One of the most popular testing frameworks in Ruby

#### **[OLD]** [The RSPEC Book](https://www.amazon.com/RSpec-Book-Behaviour-Development-Cucumber-ebook/dp/B00A32NY44)

The traditional standard in RSPEC, and for good reason.

#### [Effective Testing with RSpec](https://www.amazon.com/Effective-Testing-RSpec-Build-Confidence/dp/1680501984)

Written by one of the writers of RSpec and probably the best book on testing out on the market currently.

### Minitest

Minitest is a lightweight alternative to RSpec

#### [The Minitest Cookbook](https://chriskottom.com/minitestcookbook/)

A detailed guide on getting started with and using Minitest effectively