The Best Friends for a Rustacean. Top Books in Learning Rust.

We’ve gathered the best selling software engineering books to learn Rust. Recommended by many other developers and reviewers. 

Rust is a new programming language that combines the benefits of safety, performance and concurrency. It’s memory safety performance is comparable to to C and C++. It also has a strong community that might soon even rival top programming communities like Python.

1. The Rust Programming Language, 2nd Edition

Publication Date: February 28, 2023

The Rust Programming Language, 2nd Edition is the official guide to Rust 2021: an open source systems programming language that will help you write faster, more reliable software. Rust provides control of low-level details along with high-level ergonomics, allowing you to improve productivity and eliminate the hassle traditionally associated with low-level languages.

2. Programming Rust: Fast, Safe Systems Development

Publication Date: July 20, 2021

With this practical guide, experienced systems programmers will learn how to successfully bridge the gap between performance and safety using Rust. Jim Blandy, Jason Orendorff, and Leonora Tindall demonstrate how Rust’s features put programmers in control over memory consumption and processor use by combining predictable performance with memory safety and trustworthy concurrency.

3. Rust for Rustaceans: Idiomatic Programming for Experienced Developers

Publication Date: December 21, 2021

For developers who’ve mastered the basics, this book is the next step on your way to professional-level programming in Rust. It covers everything you need to build and maintain larger code bases, write powerful and flexible applications and libraries, and confidently expand the scope and complexity of your projects.

4. Effective Rust: 35 Specific Ways to Improve Your Rust Code

Publication Date: May 7, 2024

If you’re a software engineer who has experience with an existing compiled language, or if you’ve struggled to convert a basic understanding of Rust syntax into working programs, this book is for you. By focusing on the conceptual differences between Rust and other compiled languages, and by providing specific recommendations that programmers can easily follow, Effective Rust will soon have you writing fluent Rust, not just badly translated C++.

5. Rust in Action

Publication Date: August 10, 2021

Rust in Action introduces the Rust programming language by exploring numerous systems programming concepts and techniques. You’ll be learning Rust by delving into how computers work under the hood. You’ll find yourself playing with persistent storage, memory, networking and even tinkering with CPU instructions. The book takes you through using Rust to extend other applications and teaches you tricks to write blindingly fast code. You’ll also discover parallel and concurrent programming. Filled to the brim with real-life use cases and scenarios, you’ll go beyond the Rust syntax and see what Rust has to offer in real-world use cases.