Best Books for Learning Python in 2021

its almost that time of year when people want to learn python

As we get closer to the end of one of the oddest years on record and everyone changes their Google search queries to 'best python books 2021', I thought it might be a good time to tackle the incredibly popular question of "If I want to learn Python, what books should I read?". There are endless articles on the topic - and basically any article will lead you to Automate the Boring Stuff - but I thought it was time to throw my hat in the ring, so to speak. If you're not a regular reader, I've done this a few times in the past with newsletters, twitter accounts, and podcasts.

Just as a forewarning, in a few past articles I documented all the code I used to get to the results of the post. This time I'm not doing so, and I'm sorry.

I mean I'm not really sorry - it takes a lot more effort to format my code from a sketchy jupyter notebook to a presentable-ish jupyter notebook. So we're just looking at results and random commentary from me this time!

Anyways, on to the stuff you care about - the top python books to read this year.

top python books to read in 2021

All the data points here are from Goodreads, which is... probably not the best way to get the data if we're being honest, but its the one I had available to me. So... books! The list below includes both beginner and not-beginner books - I'll go through the list at another time and split those out, but for now I'm just posting this online.

title	author	average_rating	ratings_count	publish_date
Fluent Python: Clear, Concise, and Effective Programming	Luciano Ramalho	4.66	777	2015-01-25
Grokking Algorithms An Illustrated Guide For Programmers and Other Curious People	Aditya Y. Bhargava	4.41	1,576	2015-01-01
Deep Learning with Python	Francois Chollet	4.64	680	2018-12-04
Hands-On Machine Learning with Scikit-Learn and TensorFlow	Aurélien Géron	4.55	651	2017-04-09
Automate the Boring Stuff with Python: Practical Programming for Total Beginners	Al Sweigart	4.28	1,432	2014-11-25
Python Crash Course: A Hands-On, Project-Based Introduction to Programming	Eric Matthes	4.35	976	2015-02-25
Python for Data Analysis	Wes McKinney	4.13	1,226	2011-12-30
Learning Python	Mark Lutz	3.96	1,976	2013-07-24
Effective Python: 59 Specific Ways to Write Better Python	Brett Slatkin	4.29	630	2015-02-01
Python Machine Learning	Sebastian Raschka	4.27	411	2015-09-23
Programming Python	Mark Lutz	3.98	848	1996-08-01
Python Data Science Handbook: Tools and Techniques for Developers	Jake Vanderplas	4.32	285	2016-03-25
Introduction to Machine Learning with Python: A Guide for Data Scientists	Andreas C. Müller	4.34	257	2015-06-25
Python for Everybody: Exploring Data in Python 3	Charles Severance	4.31	256	2016-07-10
Python Cookbook	David Beazley	4.16	374	2002-07-15
Learn Python The Hard Way	Zed A. Shaw	3.87	881	2010-01-01
Flask Web Development: Developing Web Applications with Python	Miguel Grinberg	4.19	302	2014-04-28
Data Science from Scratch: First Principles with Python	Joel Grus	3.93	552	2015-04-14
Test-Driven Web Development with Python	Harry Percival	4.21	237	2010-01-01
Black Hat Python: Python Programming for Hackers and Pentesters	Justin Seitz	4.04	319	2014-11-25
Python Pocket Reference	Mark Lutz	4.00	307	1998-03-15
Introducing Python: Modern Computing in Simple Packages	Bill Lubanovic	4.21	170	2013-11-22
A Common-Sense Guide to Data Structures and Algorithms: Level Up Your Core Programming Skills	Jay Wengrow	4.22	160	2017-08-22
Head First Python	Paul Barry	3.83	320	2010-01-01
Python Testing with Pytest: Simple, Rapid, Effective, and Scalable	Brian Okken	4.06	119	2017-10-25
Think Stats	Allen B. Downey	3.63	315	2011-01-01
The Self-Taught Programmer: The Definitive Guide to Programming Professionally	Cory Althoff	4.00	71	2017-01-24
Serious Python: Black-Belt Advice on Deployment, Scalability, Testing, and More	Julien Danjou	4.03	64	2018-12-01
Feature Engineering for Machine Learning	Alice Zheng	3.81	80	2018-04-10
Impractical Python Projects: Playful Programming Activities to Make You Smarter	Lee Vaughan	4.24	31	2018-11-27
Python Flash Cards: Syntax, Concepts, and Examples	Eric Matthes	4.08	12	2019-01-15
High Performance Python: Practical Performant Programming for Humans	Micha Gorelick	4.17	7	2013-10-22

And what's with the weird sorting, you ask? Well its a combination of average rating & ratings count that I made up for another project that I like a lot.

So which one should I read if I'm a beginner?

So if we filter down the list above which books are primarily for beginners, you end up with a solid starting point:

• Automate the Boring Stuff with Python: Practical Programming for Total Beginners by Al Sweigart (4.28 avg, 1,432 ratings)
• Python Crash Course: A Hands-On, Project-Based Introduction to Programming by Eric Matthes (4.35 avg, 976 ratings)
• Learning Python by Mark Lutz (3.96 avg, 1,976 ratings)
• Grokking Algorithms An Illustrated Guide For Programmers and Other Curious People by Aditya Y. Bhargava (4.41 avg, 1,576 ratings)
• Python for Data Analysis by Wes McKinney (4.13 avg, 1,226 ratings)

And those are only the top five books on there. Grokking Algorithms is a bit more focused on the computer science aspects of coding rather than the python language, but it does use Python for its examples. And Python for Data Analysis is basically focused on a python package called pandas, which is what any data scientist/analyst spends most of their day in. So if you're truly a beginner, focus on Automate the Boring Stuff, Python Crash Course, and Learning Python.

My other recommendation for beginners is to keep an eye out for bundle deals, like humble bundle. You can normally get ~10 ebooks for $15. Which is a pretty good deal, given a lot of these books go for $30+ on their own...