Previously, in our series of Best 'Books To Learn Ruby on Rails', we talked about RoR titles for beginners and intermediates. This time we'll jump to the next level by focusing on advanced RoR resources, perfect for those who have vast experience under their belt and feel comfortable in Ruby on Rails environment.

Basically, it does not matter if you 'wanna be another awesome ninja skilled RoR rockstar dev, add ‘senior’ title in front of your surname or simply, write damn good code. Some of the books below might be slightly outdated (as while creating this list the current stable version of Rails is 5.1.4 and the Ruby 2.4.1) but they still present some fundamental principles worth brushing up.

1 - Practical Object-Oriented Design in Ruby

Practical Object-Oriented Design in Ruby by Sandi Metz. The first recommended book in our list with very promising customer reviews. Sandi Metz, with over thirty years of experience in the industry, has written ‘The Complete Guide to Writing More Maintainable, Manageable, Pleasing, and Powerful Ruby Applications’, the book that thoroughly explains how to craft a code with concern for its long-term maintenance or evolution. Each technique is described and illustrated by certain case examples in a very approachable and easy to get way.

2 - Ruby Under a Microscope: An Illustrated Guide to Ruby Internals

Ruby under a Microscope by Pat Shaughnessy allows you on inner exploration to the core of Ruby by taking a real closer look to its background. With this book you’re going to investigate small objects and structures to see how Ruby is implemented. Must-read for everyone who’d like to know what’s ‘under the hood’.

3 - Effective Ruby: 48 Specific Ways to Write Better Ruby

Effective Ruby: 48 Ruby best practices by Peter J. Jones. Expert tips and thoroughly described rules how to understand the Ruby programming principles. This book will help you and boost your skills based on real code examples. Each chapter is divided into separate practical advices and useful techniques ready to apply in your code immediately. You should have this book on your shelf if you’d like to get more out of the language.

4 - The Ruby Way: Solutions and Techniques in Ruby Programming (3rd edition)

The Ruby Way by Hal Fulton with André Arko. Third edition of this ‘classic guide’ updated to Ruby 2.1 with more than 400 examples of realistic technical roadblocks experienced developer might encounter and step-by-step solutions how to deal with them effectively. Worth reading not only if you’d like to get familiar with some problematic cases, but also if you want to brush up the forgotten ones as well.

5 - Mastering Ruby Closures - A Guide to Blocks, Procs, and Lambdas

Mastering Ruby Closures - A Guide to Blocks, Procs, and Lambdas by by Benjamin Tan Wei Hao. This book will teach you everything you need to know and how to deeply understand Ruby Blocks, Procs and Lambdas. Vast examples covered by the very updated Ruby 2.2.X will show you how to use these features in practice ready to be applied in your current applications.

6 - Rails, Angular, Postgres, and Bootstrap, Second Edition

Rails, Angular, Postgres, and Bootstrap by David Bryant Copeland. This time something delicious for Full-Stack devs. Brand crispy and fresh edition of the book for ‘Powerful, Effective, Efficient, Full-Stack Web Development’. The very current and revised one as it covers the (actual) Rails 5.2, Ruby 2.3, PostgreSQL 9.6 and Angular 4. Must-read, powerful lecture for those who want to be fluent in full stack web development. It describes how to build a backend of a functioning web applications, how to use frontend frameworks, style it with Bootstrap, build interactive UI with Angular and set data in PostgreSQL.

7 - Service-Oriented Design with Ruby and Rails

Service-Oriented Design with Ruby and Rails by Paul Dix with Trotter Cashion, Bryan Helmkamp and Jake Howerton. This one is slightly outdated, that’s why I’ve decided to place it at the end of the list. Still, we should keep in mind that last does not mean least. The book written in 2010 with examples from Rails 2.x. This fact, however, does not devaluate its content as it still refers to universal key concepts. The author explains how to build able to scale applications that can easily adapt to growing environments.

Summary

This post officially ends our 'Best Books to Learn Ruby on Rails' series. A series in which I've gathered some technical titles worth reading or at least having around. No matter what level of experience you're presenting, if you're beginning your coder's career, have some experience in development or you already code like a pro, you'll find those RoR books worth your attention.

The list was formed based on subjective suggestions and recommendations made by practicing developers with years of experience in development, with whom I proudly work. The very special thanks I owe to Piotr Boniecki, who took his time and supported me with his advice, knowledge and vast expertise in Ruby on Rails software development. Cheers Bonias!

photo from unsplash.com by Jessica Ruscello