Ruby book to learn this beautiful language

Ruby
1

Hello, rubyists.

Well, as the subject says I want some guidance about ruby books. I
already know the language (because of codecademy), but I want to know
Ruby thoroughly. Also i already know programming (i’m coming from Java,
C++ and a little of C# and Matlab), so I’m not such a begginer.

So, the thing is I want to buy a book (paperback because I prefer
reading printed books than digital ones), but I don’t know which one. My
list is the following:

*The Ruby P.ming Language (David Flanagan & Matz)
*Programming Ruby 1.9 & 2.0 (Dave T.)
*Beginning Ruby (Peter C.)
*The Ruby Way (Hal F.)

I’m being tempted to buy the first one (is the cheapest, and I suppose
is good because matz is co-writter and the editorial is good), but the
other ones are listed in some webs and they say those are great … so,
which one do you recommend me?

Thanks

2

There’s always Shaw’s Learn Ruby The Hard Way. However, it’s not a
physical book if that’s what you’re after; really though, we should
ditch paper books already. Burn 'em all!

3

“The Well Grounded Rubyist” has recently been updated with a 2nd
edition. The first addition was the best ruby book I’ve read (I also
have a Java and C++ background), and David Black used to post
here.

But I also think you need to buy Programming Ruby for the docs in
the back of the book so that you can scribble notes on how things
work.

Flanagan’s book is more like reading docs. I also have Beginning Ruby
and The Ruby Way, which are good books. The Ruby Way is more like
reading docs, and Beginning Ruby is good for a beginner.

If I were you, I would buy Programming Ruby 1.9&2.0" and “The Well
Grounded Rubyist”.