At the time this article was published, there are 3 days and 21 hours remaining to get Humble Bundle’s “Ultimate Python Bookshelf” bundle. Depending on how much you’re willing to spend, you can get 3, 8, or 24 books at a deeply discounted price, and some of the money goes to two worthy charities. Read on to find out more…
The books
Depending on how much you pay, you’ll get 3, 8 or 24 books.
If you pay $1 – $9.99, you get these books:
- The Python Workshop
- The Statistics and Calculus with Python Workshop
- Web Development with Django
If you pay $10 – $17.99, you get the books above, along with:
- Hands-on Exploratory Data Analysis with Python
- Hands-on Machine Learning with scikit-learn and Scientific Python Toolkits
- Django 3 by Example
- Python Automation Cookbook
- Hands-on Genetic Algorithms with Python
And if you pay $18 or more, you get all the books above, plus:
- Python Data Cleaning Cookbook
- Deep Reinforcement Learning with Python
- Data Engineering with Python
- Modern Python Cookbook
- Applying Math with Python
- Python Image Processing Cookbook
- Python Feature Engineering
- Practical Python Programming for IoT
- Python Algorithmic Trading Cookbook
- Applied Computational Thinking with Python
- Hands-on Python Natural Language Processing
- Hands-on Simulation Modeling with Python
- Mastering Python Networking
- Artificial Intelligence with Python
- Python for Finance Cookbook
- Quantum Computing with Python and IBM Quantum Experience
Interested? You can order the bundle here.
The causes
All Humble Bundles route some of each bundle’s price to one or more charities. In the case of The Ultimate Python Bookshelf bundle, there are two charities that will benefit:
Doctors Without Borders / Médécins Sans Froniteres: An international, independent medical humanitarian organization that delivers emergency aid to people affected by armed conflict, epidemics, natural and man-made disasters, and exclusion from health care in nearly 70 countries.
Stop AAPI Hate: A national coalition addressing anti-Asian racism across the U.S. The coalition was founded by the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council (A3PCON), Chinese for Affirmative Action (CAA) and San Francisco State University’s Asian American Studies Department. Between March 19, 2020 and February 28, 2021, Stop AAPI Hate has received 3,795 reported incidents of racism and discrimination targeting Asian Americans across the U.S..
Wait a minute — there are Packt books. Are they worth getting?
As you were reading this article, you were probably wondering about the issue of the less-than-stellar reputation of Packt’s books and if I was going to raise the issue.
Consider the issue raised, Gentle Reader.
When they were starting out, it seemed that Packt took whatever author they could get to write about the hot tech topics of the moment and rushed those books to market. Over the years, the quality of their authors, review process, and books seems to have improved. I know for a fact that Tampa-based iOS developer Craig Clayton has written some excellent books on iOS development for Packt — because I bought them all.
I decided to buy the bundle. I paid the recommended $25 for these reasons:
- Some of the money goes to two good causes.
- At $25 for 24 books, that’s less than $1.05 per book.
- I’m at the point where I won’t even notice a “missing” $25.
- I don’t consider it $25 spent, but $25 invested.
That last point requires a deeper explanation:
- If at least a handful of these books are good and provide me with something that I can use at work, in my own programming projects, or in my articles, I will have collected a good return on my investment.
- Even if most of them are bad, it will still be a worthwhile investment because the 25 books span a wide array of Python topics, and will give me a better idea of what I don’t know, and better still, what I don’t know I don’t know. I can then look for better sources of information.
As I go through each of these books, I’ll post my findings and opinions here.
How to order the bundle
Once again, Humble Bundle’s “Ultimate Python Bookshelf” bundle is available until Monday, April 26 at 2:00 p.m. EDT (UTC-4). If you wanted to learn Python, sharpen your Python skills, or expand your knowledge of where you can apply Python, this bundle is worth considering.