Top 7 Publishers of Books on Computer Technologies That You Must Know

And how to get started with a book from one of them.Photo by Jessica Ruscello on UnsplashIn this modern era of learning, where we have countless of mediums to learn computer technologies, ranging from formal university degrees, to boot camps, to YouTub…

And how to get started with a book from one of them.

Photo by Jessica Ruscello on Unsplash

In this modern era of learning, where we have countless of mediums to learn computer technologies, ranging from formal university degrees, to boot camps, to YouTube videos, to subscription-based interactive courses, to mere text-based articles, to podcasts, one medium has clearly stood the test of the time, and will hopefully continue to do so in the future as well.

That is the book.

Different people obviously have different opinions about it.

  • Some say that books have become obsolete for learning computer technologies, and that YouTube videos are a much better option.
  • Some vote in favor of other interactive courses that get the learner to implement actual stuff while learning a given topic.
  • Some say that books are costly and so it’s much better to go with free learning resources instead of spending tons and tons of pennies on this bulk of paper.

While each of these arguments does have some sort of relevance, I honestly believe that one of the best ways to learn just about anything related to computer technologies is to pick up a book on that topic.

Since ages, people with expertise on a particular topic have been writing books to teach that topic to other people. Usually books are written by experts in their field, covering the underlying topic of the book in a comprehensive way.

Not to mention, it’s not always the case that a given book would be easy to follow along, or written in clear and simple words. Sometimes there do come books that are not well-crafted in terms of their structure, their content, their overall design, and so on.

But there are some notable publishers in the field of computer technologies that have succeeded over the past few years in producing a much higher ratio of quality books that are extremely easy to follow through by the intended audience.

Once again, it would be wrong to say that literally every single book produced by these publishers is exceptional.

Not really!

Some books by these publishers do have certain areas where there is room for a substantial amount of improvement. But keep in mind that the percentage of such books is very very low, and so we can safely expect almost every book to be of top-notch quality.

In this article, we’ll discuss about 7 such publishers that produce excellent and comprehensive books on computer technologies.

1. O’Reilly

O’Reilly logo

O’Reilly started publishing books on programming and other computing disciplines back in 1984.

Its founder, Tim O’Reilly, is a well-reputed international speaker who’s had a role in many computing innovations over the past few years.

The company puts up a bunch of conferences, over the year, around the globe, to help spread the word about computer technologies amongst all kinds of people in the field, ranging from newbie learners to advanced experts.

As for the books published by O’Reilly on computer technologies, they are extremely well-designed and well-structured.

From the table of contents, to the typography used, to the readability of the code snippets (including their syntax highlighting), to the clarity of content — O’Reilly has everything to offer.

To get started with a book from O’Reilly, you can head over to their official website, oreilly.com, and then search for a given topic, such as ‘javascript’.

A number of search results would appear thereafter. In the results, books from other publishers will be included as well.

To limit the search only to books from O’Reilly, click on the Publishers dropdown at the top of the search results page, and then select O’Reilly Media, Inc from there. This will filter the search to show only books from O’Reilly.

From all the books shown, select a book and then either buy its print version from the link to Amazon (or Ebooks.com), or subscribe to O’Reilly on a monthly or yearly basis to get access to all their books online.

Below are some of the books from O’Reilly that I’ve personally read and found quite amazing:

2. Packt

Packt logo

Packt, founded in Birmingham, UK, has been around since 2004, helping to provide aspiring readers with learning and information services.

As stated on their official website, packtpub.com, Packt has published over 6500 books and videos on computer technologies.

This clearly isn’t just a mere number. It’s purely reminiscent of the fact that Packt has put up a huge library of resources, over the past two decades, to help people acquire computing skills.

It’s really simple to get started with a Packt book.

Head over to packpub.com, and then enter the topic in the search bar at the top of the page for which you’d like to read a book. Let’s say your search query is ‘java’.

From the search results that appear, select a book and click on it. This will take you to the page where you can get buy the book using either of three buying options.

That is, you can either subscribe (on a monthly basis, a yearly basis, or for a period of 18 months), and thus get online access to the entire library of Packt. Or you can buy a hardcopy of a particular book from Amazon, or buy that book’s eBook version directly from Packt’s official website.

Once again, following is a list of some books that I’ve personally read from Packt, and would surely recommend to others as well:

3. Wiley

Wiley logo

Another globally-leading book publisher is Wiley, founded even earlier than two centuries ago, in 1807.

Wiley doesn’t only publish books on computer technologies. Rather, it covers a wide range of fields, ranging from medicine, to healthcare, to law, to engineering, to arts, to behavioral sciences, to environment, to mathematics, and much more.

Yet this huge and diverse catalogue of books at Wiley doesn’t compromise their quality at all. Wiley’s books are well-written, easy to follow through, and extremely well-designed.

To get started with a book from Wiley, head over to their official website, wiley.com, and enter a topic in the search bar at the top of the page. Let’s say the query you enter is ‘javascript’.

On the subsequent search results page, choose a book from the collection of books found to be related to the entered topic, and then click on it. This will take you to the page where you could buy the book.

One option is to purchase an eBook version, while the second option is to purchase a hardcopy. Both can be done right from within the Wiley’s website.

As another option, it’s also possible to read some books from Wiley online via a subscription of O’Reilly. That’s because O’Reilly partners with some publishing companies and makes their titles available on its online platform.

Anyways, below I’ve gathered a list of some books from Wiley that I’ve read and found particularly interesting:

4. Apress

Apress logo

Apress, a Springer Nature company, was found in 1999, by authors Gary Cornell and Dan Appleman. When started, it was called Author’s Press, later shortened to APress, and then finally to Apress.

Apress is focused on producing books on IT, software and computer programming. As stated on the About Us page at its official website:

Our high-quality, practical content helps technology professionals at all levels increase the skills they need to advance in their day-to-day work.

There are numerous technologies covered by Apress’s books, ranging from Java, to C++, to Swift, to Python, to full-stack web development, to the .NET family of programming tools, and a lot more.

To get started with an Apress book, head over to SpringerLink’s website, link.springer.com, and enter the topic in the search bar at the top of the page whose book you wish to read. Let’s say the topic is ‘python’.

From the resulting collection of matching books, select a book and then click on it. This will take you to the main page of the book where it could be bought.

As with all the options above, you could either pay for an eBook version of the chosen book, or proceed with purchasing a hardcopy.

Following is a collection of some of the books from Apress that I really enjoyed reading:

5. No Starch Press

No Starch Press logo

When it comes to beautiful illustrations and quality content, it would be unfair to not talk about No Starch Press.

No Starch Press was found in 1994 by Bill Pollock. It’s based in San Francisco, USA, and is yet another popular publisher concerned with producing books on computer technologies.

Books from No Starch Press are comprehensive, well-structured and extremely easy to read through. I’ve myself read many many books from No Starch Press and would surely want to read even more.

I just find one thing a little bit unsatisfying in these books and that’s the fact that code snippets aren’t syntax-highlighted (i.e. different parts of a code colored differently so as to quickly distinguish between them, visually).

However, this shouldn’t keep you from opting to buy a book from No Starch Press. The clarity of the content of all their books and the extent of information covered is truly remarkable.

To get started with a book from No Starch Press, head over to their website, nostarch.com, and enter the topic, whose book you want to read, in the search bar at the top-right corner of the page. Let’s say the topic is ‘tcp’.

From the results that appear thereafter, select a book and then click on it. This will take you to the page where you can either buy an eBook version of the book or a printed hardcopy.

Superbly-written books that I’ve read from No Starch Press:

6. Pearson

Pearson logo

Akin to Wiley, Pearson is another publishing company that produces books in a wide variety of disciplines, including computer technologies.

According to Wikipedia:

The company was founded by Samuel Pearson in 1844 as a building and engineering concern operating in Yorkshire under the name ‘S. Pearson & Son’.

As time went on, Pearson changed its concerns into managing the publication of widespread education materials, and to date continues to do so.

Pearson is an extremely diverse publisher. It has books on numerous subjects, ranging from mathematics, to healthcare, to engineering, to arts, to business, to teaching, to social sciences, and much more.

Talking about IT and computer science, there are many exceptional books worth consideration in these sectors as well.

To get started with a Pearson book, head over to their website, pearson.com, and search for a given topic in the search bar at the top-right corner. Let’s say the topic is ‘c++’.

From the results that appear, pick a book that interests you, and then click on it to go to the main page of the book. Here you get to buy the book, as always, in one of the two formats — eBook or print.

Following is a collection of some my favorite books from Pearson:

7. Manning

Manning Publications logo

Manning was founded in 1990 by Lee Fitzpatrick and Marjan Bace. It published its first book way back in 1993.

Since then, to date, it continues to provide readers with valuable books on computer science and its related disciplines.

The distinctive feature of Manning books is their cover pages which, initially, were inspired from the 1805 edition of Sylvain Marechal’s four-volume compendium of regional dress customs.

The goal of Manning, by producing such covers, is to showcase the cultural diversity that was present, almost two centuries ago, in the dressing of people from different locations on the globe.

As Manning puts it, on its Covers page:

Dress codes have changed everywhere with time and the diversity by region, so rich at the time, has faded away. It is now hard to tell apart the inhabitants of different continents, let alone different towns or regions. That cultural diversity derived from isolation and we are now anything but isolated from each other.

So, we celebrate the inventiveness and initiative of today’s computer world with book covers based on the rich diversity of regional life of two centuries ago.

Anyways, coming back to the content of their books, Manning, like all the publishers discussed above, covers an array of topics in computer technologies, ranging from things such as programming languages, to web development, to mobile application development, to AI/ML, to embedded systems, to networking, and much more.

To get started with a Manning book, head over to its website, manning.com, and search for a topic in the search bar at the top of the page. Let’s say the topic is ‘express’.

Thereafter, as always, from the collection of books matching the entered query, choose a particular book and then click on it. This will take you to the main page where you can buy the book.

Manning offers two options in this regard — either buy an eBook version or a print version, with which you automatically get the eBook version too.

Below, I’ve compiled a list of some useful books from Manning that are written in a concise and well-structured manner:

In the end

Learning is a lifelong process. It really can’t be done just by using one single medium, be it any (books, interactive courses, YouTube videos, text-based articles, etc).

Books are, no doubt, an excellent medium to learn just about anything related to computer science and programming. However, it would be utterly wrong to say that one can become a pro solely by reading books, books and just books.

Well, that doesn’t work!

Instead, we ought to focus on multiple mediums and harness as much knowledge as we could from each of them.

We must listen to interviews, hear the discussions of programmers in conferences, get to know about the history of technologies, read plenty of books, go through documentation, refer to online courses, have a look over other people’s codes, and most importantly, create real-world programs.

Still there would be many things that I missed in this list, but you hopefully get the idea — we have to spread our reach over multiple places so that we could learn as much as possible.

Happy learning and happy coding. 🙂

BTW, at CodeGuage, we offer an absolutely free and comprehensive course on JavaScript.

It has over 20 quizzes and over 25 exercises for you to practice given topics in JavaScript. There is a wide range of over 70 chapters, covering things from the basics of the language to advanced ideas such as object prototypes and function closures.

Following is the link to it:

JavaScript

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