The annual book post for 2025, in March instead of May! One exciting thing about this year's book wrap up, at least to me, is that I wrote mini-reviews all year, so these reviews should have a stronger tendency to sound like I actually read the book.

So, this is wildly late. So late that it mocks the very concept of an end-of-year recap. And honestly, if I didn't like going back to these things and re-reading them, I probably wouldn't have finished it. Couple of quick notes before getting to it: The new thing this year...

This is late even by my absurd standards for having this post be late. I have a good excuse -- I got on to TikTok. And not that I wasted a bunch of time on TikTok, but that I started to see a lot of BookTok videos, where a lot...

I am extremely excited to say that _Programming Ruby 3.3_, also known as _The Pickaxe Book_, is now done done, finished, completely available as an ebook, and winding its way to distributors to ship to people as a genuine physical book. The PDF and ePub versions of the book are...

Even by my standards, this one is slow to come out, so I'll keep the intro brief. As I've done for the past few years, I quasi-obsessively rank the books I read, and I write about the top several. It's 40 again this year, and again, I'm really sorry. As...

I haven't sent out a newsletter in 2022 -- about 10% of people subscribed to this newsletter have never seen an actual newsletter in their mailbox. That seems like it should end, so... hi! I'm Noel. I write books, mostly about Ruby. I write this newsletter, which is normally about...

Welcome. Because of the exact kind of person I am, it's always bugged me when people put out year's best lists in early December -- the year isn't over, what if you read or see something on, like, December 29th that changes your whole list. (I realize this is a...

You don't need me to tell you that 2020 was a weird year, and that definitely showed up in my reading list. For a long time mid-year, I really shied away from anything that was dark or challenging. Still, I somehow managed to read books this year, and I managed...

# Books That Made Me Happy 2019 Here's big old book list for 2019. I did something very weird and nerdy this year. Rather than group the books by type, I just rank them. (I actually kind of rank them every year, but I don't normally use the ranking in...

# Books that made me happy 2018 Well, I failed in my plan to get this out by the end of January, but here are the books I liked in 2018. Unlike past years, here they all are in one post, I think it’s about 25. I tried, with mixed...

# 2017 Books A Plenty At long last, the 2017 books that made me happy/recommendations post. Did you miss me? Past years: - 2016 [Part 1](https://www.noelrappin.com/railsrx/2017/2/6/books-i-liked-in-2016-part-1) [Part Two](https://www.noelrappin.com/railsrx/2017/2/28/books-i-liked-in-2016-part-two) - 2015 [Part 1](https://www.noelrappin.com/railsrx/2016/2/3/2015-books-that-i-liked-part-1) [Part Two](#) - 2014 [SF](https://www.noelrappin.com/railsrx/2015/1/27/sf-books-that-make-me-happy-in-2014) [Fantasy](https://www.noelrappin.com/railsrx/2015/1/20/things-that-make-me-happy-fantasy-novels-2014) This year, I’m doing it all in one post, because if you...

Here’s part two of my 2016 “Books I Liked List”. This is the list of books I really, _really_ liked, for the list of books I just liked one “really” worth, head [here](https://www.noelrappin.com/railsrx/2017/2/6/books-i-liked-in-2016-part-1). All the book titles like to the Kindle edition of the book, so enjoy. [**All The Birds...

# Books 2016: Part One This is part one of my “books that made me happy in 2016”. As usual, we’re doing this in two parts. This one is the books I liked, the next post is the books I _really_ liked. I had a hard time separating the list...

I really did want to get this done sooner, but I didn’t. See [part one](https://www.noelrappin.com/railsrx/2016/2/3/2015-books-that-i-liked-part-1) for the other books I liked in 2015. Consider this the books I _really_ liked. You could call it a top ten, but there’s more than 10. But still, my absolute favorite books of 2015,...

Thanks to the literally one person who encouraged this list last year, I’m presenting the 2015 list of books I liked. Last year, I split between [Fantasy Books I Liked](https://www.noelrappin.com/railsrx/2015/1/20/things-that-make-me-happy-fantasy-novels-2014) and [SF Books I Liked](https://www.noelrappin.com/railsrx/2015/1/27/sf-books-that-make-me-happy-in-2014). This year, the split didn’t work out evenly, so I have “Books I Liked”, and...

After last week’s [Fantasy novels that made me happy](https://www.noelrappin.com/railsrx/2015/1/20/things-that-make-me-happy-fantasy-novels-2014), here’s part two. These are the Science Fiction books that I read in 2014 that made me happy. Again, alphabetical order by title. Also, I’m noticing that my writing-about-books skills are rusty, though I always found it hard to write anything...

Every year, I'm determined to write a post about my favorite books of the previous year. Every year, I fail at it, in part, because of my tendency to want to write a 2000 word essay on each one. This year, I'm doing it as part of my new "things...

Okay, the blog has been very quiet for the last month or so. Please be polite and pretend you noticed. I’ve alluded online to a new book one or two places and now I think it’s far enough along that I can mention it in public without being _too_ scared....

I was a nerdy kid. I suppose that isn’t much of a surprise, given how I turned out. But in those pre-computer days, I was nerdy about math and baseball. I was the kind of kid that kept a daily log of my batting statistics in the recess kickball games....

I'd like to pretend there was some thread connecting these things, but you and I both know there just isn't... # 1. Actual News: Cucumber 1.0 Starting with something approaching a real news story, [Cucumber 1.0 was released today](http://aslakhellesoy.com/post/6734058541/cucumber-one-oh). According to that post from Aslak Hellesøy, the project has had...

I'm granting myself amnesty for about six months of unreviewed books to mention a couple of recently read books. ### _Pirate Sun_, Karl Schroeder I think that of all the authors I enjoy, Schroeder is the most criminally under-read. If you like SF, I tell you that Virga -- the...

I've been meaning to do this sooner, but, wow time flies... Here are some brief comments about books I've read so far this year and would recommend. I think I'll pass on doing negative reviews here at the moment, unless I can make a larger point somehow. #### _Captain's Fury_,...

One weird aspect of being a published writer is that you get very little information about sales. You see your own numbers (several months after the fact), but there's no larger context, and no sense of what a reasonable expectation of sales might be. Which is why I love it...

[.jpg)](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/047022388X?ie=UTF8&tag=10prinhell-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=047022388X)This week, my book [_Professional Ruby on Rails_](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/047022388X?ie=UTF8&tag=10prinhell-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=047022388X) will be officially released. You can see [sample chapters here](http://www.wrox.com/WileyCDA/WroxTitle/productCd-047022388X.html), and you can [buy the book at Amazon (affiliate link)](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/047022388X?ie=UTF8&tag=10prinhell-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=047022388X). This book is designed to meet the needs of an intermediate to advanced Ruby on Rails...

For my first real non-techy post on this site (I'm a little nervous about that....), here's one of my favorite things to write about -- a list of favorite books that I read in 2007. All the books on this list were published recently enough to qualify as "new". I...

Amazon is now saying that _Professional Ruby On Rails_ is in stock! I haven't seen my copies yet, and I suspect Amazon purchases will actually go out next week, but it's a real page and everything. The link to purchase is [right here](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/047022388X?ie=UTF8&tag=10prinhell-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=047022388X). I've also added a [running list of...

As I've mentioned here a few times, I have a book coming out, "Professional Ruby on Rails", available later this month. If you'd like a sneak peek, Wrox has put some samples online as PDF files. You can also just [buy the book](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/047022388X?ie=UTF8&tag=10prinhell-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=047022388X). - [Chapter 1](http://media.wiley.com/product_data/excerpt/8X/04702238/047022388X.pdf) -- This sets up...

First off, several pathfinder blog posts to catch up on... - A two part series on a quick little testing tool that I wrote called testbed. [Part 1](http://blogs.pathf.com/agileajax/2007/11/live-ruby-testb.html). [Part2](http://blogs.pathf.com/agileajax/2007/12/live-ruby-testb.html). - [Predictions for 2008](http://blogs.pathf.com/agileajax/2007/12/2008-the-year-i.html) - [How to test custom form builders in RSpec](http://blogs.pathf.com/agileajax/2007/12/rspec-and-rails.html). I wrote this in the hope that somebody...

Somebody anonymous asks: > As most of the currently available books cover Rails 1.2, are you providing the code in the books also as Rails 1.2? The sample example in the book is Rails 2.0, which was Edge Rails when I started, and I just validated all the tests against...

In response to the commenter who asked if there was going to be a beta book. UPDATE: Clearly I should ask about these things before I post. Jim Minatel from Wrox added the following in comments: - There will be a PDF about six weeks after the print book, meaning...

Just got the next version of the book chapters for my examination. I'm not 100% sure exactly where these fit in the process. It looks like they've had a good look-see from a copyeditor, largely for style, clarity, and consistency. (Any lingering "we" sentences seem to have been pruned, for...

Wow, I haven't been here for a while. Sorry about that. Here's the deal... The Rails book initial draft went in about a week ago, more or less on time. (Well, on time for a slightly revised schedule). My understanding of the current schedule is that the author review phase...

A few things I forgot to put in the last book update: - The Amazon listing has the book at 600 pages. That's almost certainly optimistic. The contract calls for 400-500. - As far as the schedule goes, I'm currently hoping to turn the complete draft in on October 26th,...

Here's a couple notes on the current status of the Rails book and life in general. - The Rails book is presently just about 30% done -- first payment triggered (yay!). I'm reasonably happy about it so far, though definitely too close to it at the moment to have a...

In the interests of being able to push out quick updates on the book's progress, I've created a Twitter account for the book. You can follow that account on the sidebar of this here blog, or at http://twitter.com/noelrappinbook -- there's also an [RSS feed](http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/7587862.rss). Please remember that any and all...

It's been about a week or so of continued radio silence, so I thought I'd pop in with an update. I'm in the middle of chapter three of the Rails book. I think it's going well, but nobody other then me has read the chapters yet, so that's easy to...

It's been about 25 years since I first typed 10 PRINT "HELLO", and in that time I've read dozens of books aimed at making me better at creating software. There are several things I want to do with this site, but certainly one of them is to recognize those books...

I wouldn't say it happens often, but I do sometimes get asked some questions about being a technical author. Seemed like a good place to start. For a long time, the most common question was Did you pick the animal on the cover of the Jython book? The answer is...