# Recommendation: books for beginners

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/recommendation-books-for-beginners/44050>\
**Category:** Community\
**Tags:** book\
**Created:** [July 31, 2020, 4:36pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/recommendation-books-for-beginners/44050 "2020-07-31T16:36:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 9\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![yarnabrina](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/yarnabrina/32/16888_2.png) [@yarnabrina](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/yarnabrina)\
**Post date:** [July 31, 2020, 4:36pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/recommendation-books-for-beginners/44050/1 "2020-07-31T16:36:45Z")

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Hi!

I’m planning to start learning `Julia`. But I don’t really have a programming background. I have used `R` for college assignments, and a little bit of `Python`. Based on previous experiences, I’ve come to realise that videos are not really for me, so I’ll prefer to start Julia journey via some online books that I can follow along.

While asking this question, I was recommended [this thread](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/book-recommendation-s/11952). Manual’s are usually very terse (from my R experience), and the other link to `ThinkJulia` leads to `HTTP 404`. I’m looking for something similar to [`R4DS`](https://r4ds.had.co.nz/).

If one of you please suggest me such a book, that’ll be really helpful.

Thanks.

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**Author:** ![CameronBieganek](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/cameronbieganek/32/6915_2.png) [@CameronBieganek](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/CameronBieganek)\
**Post date:** [July 31, 2020, 4:42pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/recommendation-books-for-beginners/44050/2 "2020-07-31T16:42:59Z")

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Here’s a link to Think Julia that works:

[https://benlauwens.github.io/ThinkJulia.jl/latest/book.html](https://benlauwens.github.io/ThinkJulia.jl/latest/book.html)

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**Author:** ![yarnabrina](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/yarnabrina/32/16888_2.png) [@yarnabrina](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/yarnabrina)\
**Post date:** [August 1, 2020, 6:36am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/recommendation-books-for-beginners/44050/3 "2020-08-01T06:36:57Z")

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Thanks. I’m going through it right now, and it is very easy to follow asa beginner.

Obviously I’ve not completed it yet, but looking at the contents, it is for gettings the basics. That’s fine, and it explains really well. But after that, I’ll probably be interested in plotting, EDA, modelling, etc. Can you please recommend a book for those, preferably written in a similar type of thorough and friendly way?

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**Author:** ![Tamas\_Papp](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/tamas_papp/32/25949_2.png) [@Tamas\_Papp](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Tamas_Papp)\
**Post date:** [August 1, 2020, 6:41am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/recommendation-books-for-beginners/44050/4 "2020-08-01T06:41:19Z")

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> [@yarnabrina](#):
>
> after that, I’ll probably be interested in plotting, EDA, modelling, etc. Can you please recommend a book for those

This is done by packages in Julia, which may not have a book written about them. That said, most mature packages come with nice documentation that has a tutorial-like introductory section. This includes eg [Plots.jl](https://docs.juliaplots.org/latest/), or the [SciML](https://github.com/SciML) ecosystem for modeling.

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**Author:** ![orialb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/65b543/32.png) [@orialb](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/orialb)\
**Post date:** [August 1, 2020, 7:51am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/recommendation-books-for-beginners/44050/5 "2020-08-01T07:51:19Z")

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Not a book, but there is also the free [Julia for data science](https://juliaacademy.com/p/julia-for-data-science) course at Julia academy, maybe helpful for what you are looking for.

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**Author:** ![Hawk](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/hawk/32/16763_2.png) [@Hawk](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Hawk)\
**Post date:** [August 1, 2020, 9:55am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/recommendation-books-for-beginners/44050/6 "2020-08-01T09:55:33Z")

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Maybe SciML documentation is a suitable choice, a lot of implemented examples!

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**Author:** ![bilderbuchi](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/bilderbuchi/32/13562_2.png) [@bilderbuchi](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/bilderbuchi)\
**Post date:** [August 1, 2020, 12:11pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/recommendation-books-for-beginners/44050/7 "2020-08-01T12:11:46Z")

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If you want to learn about optimization and pick up Julia at the same time, I enjoyed [Algorithms for Optimization](https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/algorithms-optimization) as a good intro to the former, with the code examples written in the latter (and a Julia crash course chapter in the back).

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**Author:** ![yarnabrina](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/yarnabrina/32/16888_2.png) [@yarnabrina](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/yarnabrina)\
**Post date:** [August 1, 2020, 2:53pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/recommendation-books-for-beginners/44050/8 "2020-08-01T14:53:07Z")

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Thanks all of you! 🙂

@orialb: I’ve found Julia Academy earlier, and the other courses as well. But I skipped it for now looking for books. Will definitely head back there later.

@bilderbuchi: I’m not specifically looking for optimisation, but I’ll surely check that after I finish `Think Julia`.

I’ve an idea that documentations, even if very thorough, are usually not helpful in learning from scratch. So I’m a bit skeptical, albeit only based on my earlier experiences (mainly `R`, but also `Python`). I love both these languages (emphatically `R`), but I won’t have learned anything just from the docs. If it’s different for `Julia`, I’ll be very happy. Let me finish this book first, and then I’ll check out `SciML` examples.

Thanks again.

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**Author:** ![anon37204545](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/439d5e/32.png) [@anon37204545](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/anon37204545)\
**Post date:** [August 1, 2020, 3:43pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/recommendation-books-for-beginners/44050/9 "2020-08-01T15:43:59Z")

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~~The one and the only:~~  
[https://github.com/JuliaLang/docs.julialang.org/blob/assets/julia-1.4.2.pdf](https://github.com/JuliaLang/docs.julialang.org/blob/assets/julia-1.4.2.pdf)

Edit: there’s a newer version available  
[https://github.com/JuliaLang/docs.julialang.org/blob/assets/julia-1.5.0.pdf](https://github.com/JuliaLang/docs.julialang.org/blob/assets/julia-1.5.0.pdf)