I read the first half based on a recommendation, but it was really much too elementary for me. In the preface the author mentions the book was born from the success of his earlier work, "Ruby for Rails". I think the link is strong--the book is a simpler, less comprehensive version of "Programming Ruby" ("the pickaxe book"), almost as if for readers from a RoR background who wanted to spend as little effort on Ruby itself as possible. I would definitely recommend the pickaxe book, a canonical text if there ever was one, over this title. This was suggested to me by someone as a helpful book for someone new to the language but not new to programming in general. I found this more helpful than the Pickaxe book because it's concise with examples while being detailed in the why's, when's and how's of things, which is something I'm more interested in when learning a new language.It's an excellent companion to the Pickaxe book since it gives a different voice and perspective on the subject. I mainly read The Well-Grounded Rubyist and then used the Pickaxe book as reference when I needed to look up something more technical.
Do You like book The Well-Grounded Rubyist (2009)?
A great introduction to Ruby, in-depth and clear: everything you want in a tech book.
—inluvwithbooks
Fantastic second book when learning ruby after Chris Pine's learn to program.
—Maddz
Excellent overview. Bit too wordy.
—redbullsgirl05
