Introduction to Regular Expressions

A genuinely enjoyable read that also taught me a great deal.

I have been working with databases & big data for a few years now and I still found plenty here that was new to me. The explanations are careful without being condescending, which is a difficult balance to strike. The balance between theory and practice is well judged; neither side dominates. I have already recommended it to two colleagues and will recommend it to more.

Better than I expected. Rare to find a technical book this well judged.

I read this over a couple of weekends alongside a small side project, which turned out to be the ideal way to approach it. It is denser than the page count suggests, and I found myself slowing down around the middle. The author avoids over-explaining, which keeps the pace up but means you need to pay attention. If you have the prerequisites, this is an easy recommendation. I will be keeping it on my desk rather than the shelf.