A good introduction to Ruby. Touches on a lot of basic functionality and offers interesting and humorous challenges to practice programming. If you're looking to get started with Ruby, this book is a good jumping off point without too much intimidation. As an added perk, he has it available online to read for free! But you'll have to work out the answers to the challenges yourself because those are only offered in the print edition. But that's ok. As Chris Pine himself so aptly put it, "Programming isn't about what you know; it's about what you can figure out." Well said.

The best tutorial- print or electronic- I've found for beginning coders. Clear explanations for those without a tech background and practical application of ideas with exercises that include 'how you could do it' and 'how I [the author] would do it' that demonstrate better/best practices. The book is humorous, entertaining, and engaging such that it never overwhelmed me as a student. Not only does the book cover the basic science of code, it also gives the reader a sense of how code can be beautiful, unique, and expressive. The best starting point for beginners looking to learn code and be inspired by the craft.

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This is a great book to read If you have never done any programing. It gives a solid base in the Ruby language.

Very accessible, a bit outdated, definitely learn-to-program more than learn-ruby. Quick read but I prefer more meaty texts

best into to Ruby for the non programmer

Great book. Clear, funny, effective, and it progresses at just the right pace to challenge the reader, without plunging you into despair.

Solid introduction to Ruby.

Awesome introductory book to Ruby.

- pretty barebones
- first few chapters are literally less than 5 pages
- in an effort to be conversational (and...funny?), author's voice is cringe and distracting
- didn't feel like i had the tools to figure out given exercises
- would've been super appreciated if in the answers where we see how Chris would do it, an explanation of wth he's doing lol. otherwise, is it actually helpful?
- got to chapter 9 before i skimmed the rest of the material to get what i could out of it

there are free materials online that go into better depth than this book and provide better exercises to practice with.

I wish I had read this earlier in my career. Absolutely recommended for anyone getting started with programming or anyone who thinks maybe they could be - you won't be intimidated by this book. It truly is for beginners and it lays an excellent foundation to build on.

I *ahem* know the person who wrote this, so... just so you know. But I think it's a great book, and I know how much time, thought, and effort he put into it. I served as a guinea pig of sorts through all the drafts and earlier versions. I was a non-programmer to begin with, and Chris actually tried to teach me to program a couple of other times before he started writing the book. The book worked! I don't program by myself these days, but I got enough understanding from the book to be able to listen to Chris tell programming stories :).

This was a good one - an easy and well-explained exposition of the Ruby language with great examples to follow along with. It's written in such a way that anyone - and I mean anyone - could understand.