The 8 Best Books to learn Ruby on Rails

by Thibault - October 5, 2014

If you are planning to learn Ruby on Rails or if you are still on the learning journey, books should be an important part of the process. Some people like screencast, other only learn by coding pet projects.

I like to read books and apply what I’m learning in small projects. If you’re like me, you will like this article. I’ve put together a list of the 8 best books to learn Ruby on Rails from my own digital library.

I ordered the list in the way I advise you to read them.

Getting Started with Ruby

First, you should start by learning everything about Ruby by reading Programming Ruby 1.9 & 2.0. It will give you a great base about everything related to the Ruby programming language. Then, I’d recommend Eloquent Ruby to perfect your style and learn how to write clean code.

Focusing on Rails

Once you’re familiar with Ruby, you can start learning Ruby on Rails and build your first web applications. To do so, you can read Agile Web Development with Rails 4 which will teach you everything about the Rails framework.

Sharpening your skills

Now that you know how to code in Ruby and you are familiar with Rails, I’d recommend reading Design Patterns in Ruby and Rails AntiPattern. Those 2 books will show you the best ways to organize your code by using proven Design Patterns.

Don’t forget the Tests!

To complete your Ruby on Rails education, you should study the best way to write tests, and one of the best books to do that is The RSpec Book.

The next level

The last 2 books I want to talk about are not centered on Ruby or Rails, they are more about general programming knowledge. You should totally read them if you haven’t yet. I’m talking about Code Complete and The Pragmatic Programmer. Two great books that every programmer should have on his bookshelf!

Don’t hesitate to checkout my book, Modular Rails, to learn about a different way to build Ruby on Rails applications.