The 20 Best Ruby Books for Learning Ruby Programming

Ruby is an interpreted programming language for web
application development. This high level and general-purpose
language can help you to develop very sophisticated applications.
Ruby on Rails has rich gems, which is not even in possession of
many modern technologies. Therefore it is worth learning the
Ruby programming language^[1] at this time. Keeping
this view in mind, we are providing an impressive Ruby book list so
that you can learn this precious language with comfort and
interest. 

The Gold Mine of Best Ruby
Books

---

This content is the guideline to the readers who have
chosen to learn the Ruby programming language. In this guideline,
you will find different categories of Ruby books that are different
in their teaching styles and outstanding in their way of innovative
teaching. You will find books suitable for both amateurs and
experts. The descriptions and table of contents will help you to
find out the best Ruby book for you. 

1. Beginning Ruby on Rails

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Those who want to have the actual taste to learn the Ruby
programming language in an exciting way, they can blindly follow
the Ruby programming language book named  ‘Beginning Ruby on
Rails.’ Initially, the book eases up your installation process by
showing how to install it on any of the important Operating
Systems. Then comes different statements, conditions, and so on.
Besides, the book will introduce Rails, the chemistry between Ruby
and Rails, and working procedures with databases. 

Table of Contents

• Welcome to Ruby, Install Ruby, and Rails
• Conditionals, Loops, Methods, Blocks
• Classes and Objects
• Welcome to Rails
• Connecting to Database
• Validating and Testing
• Controlling the Action wit the Action
  Controller
• Getting the Big Picture with Views
• Ajax and Rails

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Book^[2]

2. The Book of Ruby

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The process of learning Ruby programming language should
be very systematic, especially for the new learners, thereby this
Ruby book is written, maintaining all possible systematic ways.
Firstly the book will teach you every general idea about Ruby and
Rails. In the very first chapter, you will come to know about
strings, numbers, classes, and objects. Gradually the book will
dive deep down to more important topics like exception handling,
debugging and Ruby on Rails, etc.

Table of Contents

• What is Ruby and What is Rails
• Strings, Numbers, Classes, and Objects
• Class, Hierarchies, Attributes and Class
  Variables
• String and Ranges
• Arrays and Hashes
• Loops and Iterators
• Conditional Statements and Method
• Passing Arguments and Returning Values
• Exception Handling
• Blocks, Procs, and Lambdas
• Symbols, Modules, and Mixins
• Files and IO
• YAML and Marshal
• Regular Expression and Threads
• Debugging and Testing
• Ruby on Rails
• Dynamic Programming

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Book^[3]

3. Eloquent Ruby

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Almost all the Ruby books discuss the basic things that
you need to learn the Ruby programming language. Still, this book
has taken a unique endeavor by enriching the book with topics like
how to find strings, ways to use symbols, how to embrace dynamic
typing, etc. Eloquent Ruby will teach you the way to use modules as
Mixins and blocks to Iterate. There are many more interesting and
important topics where you can learn and implement Ruby in the
perfect way. 

Table of Contents

• The Basics

Write Code the Looks Like Ruby Choose the Right
Control Structure Take Advantage of Ruby’s Smart
String Finding the Right String with Regular
Expressions

• Classes, Modules, and Blocks

Construct your Classes from Short, Focused Methods
Define Operators Respectfully Create Classes
That Understand Eulity Get the Behaviour Your Need
with Singleton and Class Methods

• Metaprogramming

Use Hooks to Keep Your Program Informed Use
method_missing for Delegation Use method_missing to
Build Flexible APIs Update Existing Classes with
Monkey Patching

• Pulling it All Together

Build External DSLs for Flexible Syntax Package
Your Programs as Germs Know your Ruby
Implementation Keep an Open Mind to Go with those open
Classes

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^[4]

4. Head First Ruby

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It is always better to get a lot of things with less
effort, which is precisely provided by the Head First Ruby book. In
all the chapters, you will find the touch of both innovation and
literature, which made the book a very interesting one. You can
learn arrays, blocks, hashes, references, Mixins, etc. in a very
appropriate way. Here not only topics like documentation,
exception, web apps are discussed, rather a specific guideline to
utilize these are suggested. 

Table of Contents

• More with Less: Code the Way you Want
• Methods and Classes: Getting Organized
• Inheritance: Relying on Your Parents
• Initializing Instances: Off to a Great Start
• Arrays and Blocks: Better than Loops
• Block Return Values: How Should I Handle
  This?
• Hashes: Labeling Data
• References: Crossed Signals
• Mixins: Mix It UP
• Comparable and Enumerable: Ready-Made Mixes
• Documentation: Read the Manual
• Exceptions: Handling the Unexpected
• Unit Testing: Code Quality Assurance
• Web apps: Serving HTML
• Saving and Loading Data: Keep It Around
• Leftovers: The top Ten Topics

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Book^[5]

5. Learn Rails: Accelerated Web
Development with Ruby on Rails

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This Ruby book is a perfect book to learn Ruby programming
language for both newbies and experts. The book covers all the
basics of Ruby in the beginning, like methods, classes, comments,
strings, numbers, etc. You will also start your journey with Rails,
where you will learn environments, layouts, partials, etc.
Gradually the book will discuss routes, bundler, gems, forms,
tests, etc. There are a lot of examples that ease up the learning
like action cable, Rails application, jquery, etc.

Table of Contents

• Ruby Introduction
• First Steps with Rails
• ActiveRecord
• Scaffolding and REST
• Routes
• Bundled and Gems
• Forms
• Cookies and Sessions
• Tests
• Active Job
• Action Mailer
• Internationalization
• Asses Pipeline
• Caching
• Action Cable
• Credentials 
• Active Storage

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Book^[6]

6. Learn Ruby Programming by
Examples

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This beautiful piece of Ruby book has a very practical way
to teach by using examples. In the first part of the book, you will
come to know some basic functions that you may observe on different
OS like Mac OS X, Windows, etc. In the basic part, you will get
different tutorials, including online tutorials. And there are a
lot of examples of printing shapes like diamond, triangle, etc. The
book has made itself rich by plenty of resources
reference.

Table of Contents

• Ruby on Windows
• Ruby on Mac OS X
• Online Ruby Tutorials
• Rhythm for Working on the Exercises
• Suggestions on Windows Layouts
• Type of Errors
• Interactive Ruby Shell (IRB)
• Print out Triangle
• Print out a Half Diamond
• Print out Diamond Shape
• Print big Diamond, name Your Size
• Exercises

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Book^[7]

7. Learn Ruby the Hard Way

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It is said that the hard way is the easiest and best way
to learn something. Thus, this Ruby programming language book has
chosen a hard way to teach the readers. In this vast book, there
are a lot of exercises that include setup exercise, comment, and
puns, character exercise, etc. In total, there are fifty-one
exercises to make someone proficient in the Ruby language. The book
also contains useful advice from an old programmer, which will
definitely inspire a new beginner.

Table of Contents

• The Hard Way is Easier
• Reading and Writing
• Attention to Detail
• Spotting Differences
• Do Not Copy-Paste
• Using the Included Videos
• A Note on Practice and Persistence
• A Warning for the Smarties
• The Setup for OS X, Windows, Linux, and Warning for
  Beginners
• A Good First Program
• NUmber and match
• Variables and Names
• More Printing
• Printing, Printing
• Parameters, Unpacking, Variables
• Reading and Writing Files
• Names, Variables, Codes, Functions
• Functions Can Return Something

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Book^[8]

8. The Little Book of Ruby

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In comparison to other Ruby books, this book is really
precious and contains almost all to make someone a true programmer
in the Ruby programming language. In the first portions, the
concept of Ruby and Rails are clarified in a nice fashion. You will
come to know how to install Ruby on your OS. After discussing
different basic things, the book has discussed different accessor
methods, a detailed discussion on arrays, a detailed discussion on
Hash, Loops, and many more.

Table of Contents

• The Little Book of Ruby 
• String and Embedded Evaluation
• Instance and Instance Variables
• Creating a Class Hierarchy
• Accessor Methods
• Introducing Arrays
• Creating Hashes
• Loops, Blocks, While Loops, Until Loops
• If..else, and..or..not, ?:, Unless, if and unless
  Modification
• A Module is Like a Class
• Module Methods, Modules as Newspaper
• Modules ‘Instance Methods’
• Moduled Modules From Files
• Including Modules from Files
• Saving Data, YMAIL, Files, Moving On

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Book^[9]

9. Metaprogramming Ruby

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Metaprogramming Ruby is the book where different topics
are named with the name of days. In those days, different topics
are discussed, like dynamic methods. Different open classes,
quizzes, and exercises have made the book a unique one. There are a
lot of quizzes in the book that includes the quiz of methods,
attributes, etc. Besides metaprogramming with Ruby, the book also
discusses metaprogramming in rails. Different important topics like
mimic methods, self yield, etc. took place in the
book. 

Table of Contents

• Metaprogramming Ruby
• Monday: The Object Model
• Tuesday: Methods
• Wednesday: Blocks
• Thursday: Class Definitions
• Friday: Code the Writes Code
• Epilogue
• The Design of ActiveRecord
• Inside ActiveRecord
• Metaprogramming Safely

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Book^[10]

10. Practical Object-Oriented Design in
Ruby

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This book has a very vibrant and vivid description of all
the topics. This Ruby book is for those who want to be a
self-taught programmer where different basic topics like design
principles, design patterns, judging design are widely discussed.
Out of numerous topics, you will come to know about interfaces,
sequence diagrams, and using procedure, Demeter, etc. The book will
show you the way to reduce cost by Duck typing. 

Table of Contents

• Object-Oriented Design
• Designing Classes with a Single
  Responsibility
• Managing Dependencies
• Creating Flexible Interfaces
• Reducing Costs with Duck Typing
• Acquiring Behaviour Through Inheritance
• Sharing Role Behaviour with Modules
• Combining Objects with Composition
• Designing Cost-Effective Tests

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Book^[11]

11. Programming Ruby

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The book contains Ruby documentation after teaching the
installation and running procedure of Ruby. In this object-oriented
language, what is control structure, blocks, and Iterators, onward
and upward, etc. are cleared most professionally. How to define and
call a method? Well, the answer is within the book. There are a lot
many topics like Ruby Tk, Ruby and Microsoft Windows, Ruby Objects
in C, Aliasing, etc. which are nicely covered in the
book. 

Table of Contents

• Part I- Facets of Ruby

Getting Started Ruby.New Classes,
Objects, and Variables Containers, Blocks, and
Iterators

• Part II- Ruby in its Setting

Ruby and It’s World with Interactive Ruby Shell
Documenting Ruby and Package Management with RubyGems
Ruby and the Web, Ruby Tk Ruby and Microsoft
Windows Extending Ruby

• Part III- Ruby Crystallized

The Ruby Language and Duck Typing Classes and
Objects Locking Ruby in the Safe

• Part IV- Ruby Library Preference

Build-In Classes and Modules Standard
Library

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Book^[12]

12. Ruby Best Practices

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The well known O’Reilly production presents a very
outstanding book where Ruby comes with different practices so that
you can learn the Ruby programming language quickly. You will know
the coding, designing, and way to master the language. The book
will teach how to handle the situation when something goes wrong
and how to maintain different projects with perfect
skill.  

Table of Contents

• Driving code Trough Tests
• Designing Beautiful APIs
• Mastering the Dynamic Toolkit
• Text Processing and File Management
• Functional Programming Techniques
• When Things Go Wrong
• Reducing Cultural Barriers
• Skillful Project Maintenance
• Writing Backward-Compatible Code
• Leveraging Ruby’s Standard Library
• Ruby Worst Practices

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^[13]

13. Ruby in a Nutshell

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Another O’Reilly collection to learn Ruby programming
language is Ruby in a Nutshell. This Ruby book declares the
elegance and action of Ruby in the introduction. Then different
basics of the language like literals, variables, methods, operators
are discussed. A thorough study on predefined variables and global
constants with built-in functions and libraries got an excellent
and detailed place in this Ruby book.

Table of Content

• Ruby’s Elegance and Ruby in Action
• Language Basics
• Command-Line Options
• Environment Variables, Lexical Conventions, Literals, and
  Variables
• Operators, Methods, and Control Structures
• Object-Oriented Programming
• Build-In Library Preferences
• Predefined Variables
• Predefined Global Constants
• Built-in Functions and Libraries
• Ruby Tools
• Standard Library Reference
• Standard Tools and Additional Tools
• Ruby Application Archive
• Ruby Updates

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Book^[14]

14. Ruby Pocket Preference

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The Ruby Pocket Reference is the key to learn the running
procedure of the Ruby interpreter. You can know how to use a
shebang line on Linux and types of files on Windows. There are
discussions of some topics like Methods, parentheses, variable
arguments, sliding methods, books as a subsidiary of Methods. There
are many more topics like accessories, singletons, inheritance,
etc. 

Table of Contents

• Running Ruby
• Preserved Words
• Comments, Numbers, Variables, and Symbols
• Predefined Variables and Pseudo Variables
• Global Constants
• Ranges, Methods, and Conditional Statements
• Classes and Files
• The IO Classes
• Exception Handling
• Object Class and Kernel Module
• String Class, Array Class, and Hash Class
• Time Formatting Directive
• Interactive Ruby (irb)
• Ruby Debugging, Ruby Documentation, and RDoC
  Options
• RubyGems
• Rake 
• Ruby Resources
• Glossary

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Book^[15]

15. Ruby Programming

---

Like most of the other Ruby books, this Ruby programming
language book starts with the teaching of the installation of Ruby.
The book discusses the basic parts like strings, objects, arrays,
etc. There are more than the basic parts like exceptional false
class, IO, etc. which made the book more interesting and valuable
to the readers. Other general topics like method, modules, range
are also discussed with due importance.

Table of Contents

• Overview and Installing Ruby
• Ruby Editors and Ruby Editors
• National Conventions and Interactive Ruby
• Basic Ruby- Strings, Alternate Quotes, Here Documents,
  Objects
• Syntax- Lexicology, Variables, Literals, Operators,
  Control Structures
• Lazy Evaluation
• Methods which Return Enumerators
• More Enumerators Readings
• Exception False Class
• IO- Fiber, Encoding, gets, Rev, read, File
• Marshal
• Methods
• Module
• Numeric- Integer, Begnum, Fixnum, Float
• Range
• Thread, Structure, Symbol

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^[16]

16. Ruby Tutorial

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Tutorials point presents Ruby Tutorial, one of the best
books to learn Ruby programming language. This book has been
written for the beginners so that they can easily learn the basic
and gradually advanced topics of Ruby programming language. This
tutorial book teaches different installation processes on different
Operating Systems like Windows, Linux, Mac OS.  The book
elaborately discussed basics, setup of environment, syntax, and
much more. 

Table of Contents

• Overview, Environment Setup, Syntax, Classes, and
  Objects
• Variables, Constants, and Literals
• Operators, Comments, If…Else, Case, Unless
• Loops, Methods, Blocks, Modules, and Mixins
• Strings, Arrays, Hashes, Date and Time
• Ranges, Iterators, File I/O, Exceptions
• Ruby Object Oriented
• Ruby Regular Expressions
• Ruby- DBI
• Web Applications, Sending Email, Socket
  Programming
• Ruby- XML, XSLT, SPATH
• Ruby- Web Services, Tk Guide
• Ruby LDAP, Multithreading, Built-In Functions
• Predefined Variables, Predefined Constants
• Associated Tools

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Book^[17]

17. Ruby Way

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Ruby Way is a Ruby book that is applicable for all
categories of readers. Firstly the book provides a good review of
the language where introduction, syntax, OOP, Dynamic aspects of
Ruby have come up. Gradually you will come to know how to work with
Ruby expressions and how to internationalize Ruby. Then you will
jump to learn symbols, syntax, OOP, GUI or graphical user
interface, scripting, concurrency, etc. 

Table of Contents

• Ruby in Review
• Working with Strings
• Working with Regular Expressions
• Internationalization in Ruby
• Performing Numerical Calculations
• Symbol and Ranges
• Working with Times and Dates
• Arrays, Hashes, and Other Enumerables
• I.O and Data Storage
• OOP and Dynamic Features in Ruby
• Threads and Concurrency
• Scripting and System Administration
• Ruby and Data Formats
• Testing and Debugging
• Packaging and Distributing Code
• Ruby and Web Application 
• Distributed Ruby and Development Tools
• The Ruby Community

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Book^[18]

18. Rails- Ruby on Rails

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Another book from Tutorials points where you get the
chemistry of Ruby and Rails. The book firstly introduces both Ruby
and Rails by giving the answer of what both of them are. There is a
good discussion on the Framework. You will discover many examples
of Ruby and Rails, which will make your learning very easy. The
behavior of Ruby and Ajax on Rails are also highlighted in the book
with proper example and emphasis. 

Table of Contents

• Ruby on Rails
• Installation
• Framework
• Directory Structure
• Examples
• Database Setup
• Active Records
• Migrations
• Controller
• Routes
• Views
• Layouts
• Scaffolding
• Ajax on Rails
• File Uploading
• Send Email

Download
Book^[19]

19. Ruby Notes for
Professionals

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The professional Ruby programmers must have this book with
them as the book is precise but all in one Ruby book. However, to
learn the Ruby programming language, this professionals note works
great. All the necessary things like strings, arrays, dates,
blocks, hashes, etc. are in the book. In the number chapter, there
are different discussions on numbers like odd, even, complex, and
many more. All other chapters are also discussed with so many
diversities. 

Table of Contents

• Getting Started with Ruby Language 
• Casting, Operators, Variable Scope and
  Visibility
• Environment Variables, Constants, Special Constants in
  Ruby
• Comments, Arrays, Multidimensional Arrays
• Strings, Date and Time, Numbers and Symbols
• Comparable Control Flow
• Methods, Hashes, Blocks and Procs and Lambdas
• Interaction, Exceptions, Enumerable in Ruby
• Classes, Inheritance, method_missing
• Regular Expression and Regex Based Operations
• File and I/O Operations
• Ruby aAccess Modifiers
• Design Patterns and Idioms in Ruby
• Thread, Range, Modules
• Introspection in Ruby, Monkey Patching In Ruby and Splat
  Operator
• JSON with Ruby, Pure RSpec JSON API Testing
• Queue, Destruction, Structure,
  Metaprogramming 

Download
Book^[20]

20. The Ruby Programming
Language

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This is the last collection of our Ruby programming
language book list, which is also another publication of O’Reilly.
The book is for both beginners and experts, where you can go for a
tour in the Ruby programming world. You will come to know the
skeleton and the execution of this programming language after
reading the book. However, all the basic and advanced topics are
well discussed in the book in a precise and exact
way. 

Table of Contents

• The Tour of Ruby
• The Structure and Execution of Ruby Programs
• Data types and Objects
• Expressions and Operators
• Statements and Control Structures
• Methods, Procs, Lambdas, and Closures
• Classes and Modules
• Reflections and Metaprogramming
• The Ruby Platform
• The Ruby Environment

Download
Book^[21]

Last Words

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So far, we have tried to include all possible categories
of Ruby programming language books. We believe you could choose
your right Ruby book. We are also hopeful that these books are
enough to feed all your requirements and queries to learn the Ruby programming
language^[22]. If you have any
suggestions restarting our collection, please share your thoughts
by commenting. Finally, we are positive to think that
you were benefited from our effort, and you are positive to
transmit this effort with others by sharing. However, your feedback
is our inspiration and way to improve further. I wish you a good
Ruby journey.