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The Big Book of Small Python Projects: 81 Easy Practice Programs Paperback – June 25, 2021

4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 216 ratings

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Best-selling author Al Sweigart shows you how to easily build over 80 fun programs with minimal code and maximum creativity.

If you’ve mastered basic Python syntax and you’re ready to start writing programs, you’ll find
The Big Book of Small Python Projects both enlightening and fun. This collection of 81 Python projects will have you making digital art, games, animations, counting pro- grams, and more right away. Once you see how the code works, you’ll practice re-creating the programs and experiment by adding your own custom touches.

These simple, text-based programs are 256 lines of code or less. And whether it’s a vintage screensaver, a snail-racing game, a clickbait headline generator, or animated strands of DNA, each project is designed to be self-contained so you can easily share it online.

You’ll create:
• Hangman, Blackjack, and other games to play against your friends or the computer
• Simulations of a forest fire, a million dice rolls, and a Japanese abacus
• Animations like a virtual fish tank, a rotating cube, and a bouncing DVD logo screensaver
• A first-person 3D maze game
• Encryption programs that use ciphers like ROT13 and Vigenère to conceal text

If you’re tired of standard step-by-step tutorials, you’ll love the learn-by-doing approach of
The Big Book of Small Python Projects. It’s proof that good things come in small programs!
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"I've always been impressed by the variety of simple, but interesting and fun, projects Al can come up with and this collection takes that to the next level. . . . Even experienced coders are likely to be pulled into browsing through the wide variety that Al has put into this book."
—Naomi Ceder, Fellow of the Python Software Foundation


"Al Sweigart presents fun programs, inspiring learners to tweak them. That's how I learned to program: tinkering with examples from books and magazines. It works!"
–Luciano Ramalho, Technical Principal at ThoughtWorks and author of Fluent Python

"Whether you're new to Python or want to exercise your coding brain, I recommend The Big Book of Small Python Projects to spark your thinking. Both the 'big' and the 'small' in the title are accurate. There are a lot of projects in this book, but most code takes up only a page or two. That makes it a fun reference book to get you into the flow or kick off a session in your terminal."
—Adam DuVander, Founder, EveryDeveloper

"This book is excellent for beginners to Python and a great reference book for programmers who are well versed in programming. I'm happy to give this book 5 out of 5 stars!"
—Greg Walters, Full Circle Magazine


"This book is packed with fun and easy programs, I can confirm."
—BC Gain, @bcamerongain

About the Author

Al Sweigart is a professional software developer who teaches programming to kids and adults. Sweigart has written several bestselling programming books for beginners, including Automate the Boring Stuff with Python, Beyond the Basic Stuff with Python, Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python, Cracking Codes with Python, and Coding with Minecraft (all from No Starch Press).

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ No Starch Press (June 25, 2021)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 432 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1718501242
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1718501249
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.75 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.01 x 0.94 x 9.2 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 216 ratings

About the author

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Al Sweigart
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Al Sweigart is a software developer and tech book author living in Houston. He has written several programming books for beginners, including Automate the Boring Stuff with Python. His books are freely available under a Creative Commons license at his website https://inventwithpython.com.

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4.6 out of 5 stars
216 global ratings

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The Big Lab Guide of Small Group Learning Activities.
5 out of 5 stars
The Big Lab Guide of Small Group Learning Activities.
Acquiring programming skills is a difficult task because it has to do directly with the way we think about things, and also because it has many layers of specialization and depth. But it is particularly difficult in the first steps, where you want to turn a set of abstract concepts into solutions to concrete problems. For many, this transition is frustrating because most of the content in the education system is about memorization and repetition. The Big Book of Small Python Projects seeks to help fill that gap for people who are just starting to program by providing examples of small but large enough programs to generate a sense of accomplishment.This is the latest book by Al Sweigart, an author who enjoys great popularity and recognition, on his website inventwithpython.com you can find a good number of books ranging from a book that invites us to learn programming by developing simple video games "Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python" which is already in its fourth edition, to a book of best practices for professionals "Beyond the Basic Stuff with Python". One of his books "Automate Boring Stuff with Python", which has sold around 300 thousand copies on Amazon, is one of those books that anyone would think that someone should have written before, but no one had dared to do it, here we are guided on the basic tasks to work with resources that are common to almost everyone: working on the file system, manipulating office documents, and interacting with Internet resources.Sweigart's formula is consistent and effective: we start by reviewing the solution to the problem, which invites us to think about how everything must work behind the scenes, and then he shows us in greater or lesser detail how this solution was constructed. It is obvious that he is not the inventor of this method nor is he the only one who has used it in programming, other good examples are the books "Dive into Python" by Mark Pilgrim where a similar formula is applied with great success.In "The Big Book" this methodology is applied systematically throughout 81 programs ordered alphabetically, following a brief introduction we find three sections: "The Program in Action" where the author shows an example of program execution, then in "How It Works" he shows us the source code just mentioning implementation details, and "Exploring the Program" where he asks some questions to encourage the reader to deepen the understanding of the program or in some cases, extend it. Most probably the author's intention is not that we advance sequentially from beginning to end, but that among the large number of topics we work on those that call our attention, in this sense it is very useful Appendix A: "Tag Index" where he shows us a classification of the programs based on two systems: by length, and by characteristics.The result is not a book that intends to explain how Python works, or how programs are built, this has already been done by Sweigart in his previous books, especially in "Invent Your Own Computer Games". "The Big Book of Small Python Projects" should be understood more as a guide to lab experiments where you are given directions on an activity that you should do yourself, or perhaps ideally in a group with friends or work/study colleagues. In this sense, it would not be unreasonable for me to see a Wiki or a GitHub repository where people could post observations or variants of the programs.Personally, I have very much enjoyed all his books, and have recommended them all at one time or another. And I am also too close to his pedagogical approach that I have largely incorporated into my work as a teacher to offer an objective viewpoint. There are some implementation details that are not to my liking, such as the use of lowerCamelCase for naming variables, functions and methods, which contradicts the PEP8 that most use, or the preferential use of the format method rather than f-strings, but there is an open invitation here for everyone to adjust it to their liking. Beyond any captious remarks, I recommend this book without reservation, not only for individual reading but also as a basis for various collective activities. For example, as a source of ideas for a programming club or a programming camp, as complementary material for a professional training process, and even as inspiration to study other programming languages, I personally have been using it to study Scala.
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Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on December 25, 2024
    Very good beginners book for learning Python while building projects
  • Reviewed in the United States on February 15, 2023
    The book is a collection of easy to understand algorithms design to teach the reader how to use python to solve everyday problems. It would be an excellent way to learn this language by working through the examples given, I have bough t a couple of books by this author and he does an excellent job of writing a text book. His books are written as if they were college text books.
    3 people found this helpful
    Report
  • Reviewed in the United States on May 15, 2024
    this is a collection of very simple python projects.
    good to give you some ideas to start with to design more interesting coding puzzles.
    All projects are text based even the ones with titles suggesting a graphical component.
    just basic python with very limited use of additional libraries.
    a good collection for beginners to wet your toes.
    2 people found this helpful
    Report
  • Reviewed in the United States on January 26, 2024
    After finishing one of the other intro books by this author, I was immediately on the hunt for more example/practice problems. It's amazing that he has this separate book with exactly that. These mini projects help build skills but also provide creative and enjoyable programming challenges.
    2 people found this helpful
    Report
  • Reviewed in the United States on October 3, 2021
    Acquiring programming skills is a difficult task because it has to do directly with the way we think about things, and also because it has many layers of specialization and depth. But it is particularly difficult in the first steps, where you want to turn a set of abstract concepts into solutions to concrete problems. For many, this transition is frustrating because most of the content in the education system is about memorization and repetition. The Big Book of Small Python Projects seeks to help fill that gap for people who are just starting to program by providing examples of small but large enough programs to generate a sense of accomplishment.

    This is the latest book by Al Sweigart, an author who enjoys great popularity and recognition, on his website inventwithpython.com you can find a good number of books ranging from a book that invites us to learn programming by developing simple video games "Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python" which is already in its fourth edition, to a book of best practices for professionals "Beyond the Basic Stuff with Python". One of his books "Automate Boring Stuff with Python", which has sold around 300 thousand copies on Amazon, is one of those books that anyone would think that someone should have written before, but no one had dared to do it, here we are guided on the basic tasks to work with resources that are common to almost everyone: working on the file system, manipulating office documents, and interacting with Internet resources.

    Sweigart's formula is consistent and effective: we start by reviewing the solution to the problem, which invites us to think about how everything must work behind the scenes, and then he shows us in greater or lesser detail how this solution was constructed. It is obvious that he is not the inventor of this method nor is he the only one who has used it in programming, other good examples are the books "Dive into Python" by Mark Pilgrim where a similar formula is applied with great success.

    In "The Big Book" this methodology is applied systematically throughout 81 programs ordered alphabetically, following a brief introduction we find three sections: "The Program in Action" where the author shows an example of program execution, then in "How It Works" he shows us the source code just mentioning implementation details, and "Exploring the Program" where he asks some questions to encourage the reader to deepen the understanding of the program or in some cases, extend it. Most probably the author's intention is not that we advance sequentially from beginning to end, but that among the large number of topics we work on those that call our attention, in this sense it is very useful Appendix A: "Tag Index" where he shows us a classification of the programs based on two systems: by length, and by characteristics.

    The result is not a book that intends to explain how Python works, or how programs are built, this has already been done by Sweigart in his previous books, especially in "Invent Your Own Computer Games". "The Big Book of Small Python Projects" should be understood more as a guide to lab experiments where you are given directions on an activity that you should do yourself, or perhaps ideally in a group with friends or work/study colleagues. In this sense, it would not be unreasonable for me to see a Wiki or a GitHub repository where people could post observations or variants of the programs.

    Personally, I have very much enjoyed all his books, and have recommended them all at one time or another. And I am also too close to his pedagogical approach that I have largely incorporated into my work as a teacher to offer an objective viewpoint. There are some implementation details that are not to my liking, such as the use of lowerCamelCase for naming variables, functions and methods, which contradicts the PEP8 that most use, or the preferential use of the format method rather than f-strings, but there is an open invitation here for everyone to adjust it to their liking. Beyond any captious remarks, I recommend this book without reservation, not only for individual reading but also as a basis for various collective activities. For example, as a source of ideas for a programming club or a programming camp, as complementary material for a professional training process, and even as inspiration to study other programming languages, I personally have been using it to study Scala.
    Customer image
    5.0 out of 5 stars The Big Lab Guide of Small Group Learning Activities.
    Reviewed in the United States on October 3, 2021
    Acquiring programming skills is a difficult task because it has to do directly with the way we think about things, and also because it has many layers of specialization and depth. But it is particularly difficult in the first steps, where you want to turn a set of abstract concepts into solutions to concrete problems. For many, this transition is frustrating because most of the content in the education system is about memorization and repetition. The Big Book of Small Python Projects seeks to help fill that gap for people who are just starting to program by providing examples of small but large enough programs to generate a sense of accomplishment.

    This is the latest book by Al Sweigart, an author who enjoys great popularity and recognition, on his website inventwithpython.com you can find a good number of books ranging from a book that invites us to learn programming by developing simple video games "Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python" which is already in its fourth edition, to a book of best practices for professionals "Beyond the Basic Stuff with Python". One of his books "Automate Boring Stuff with Python", which has sold around 300 thousand copies on Amazon, is one of those books that anyone would think that someone should have written before, but no one had dared to do it, here we are guided on the basic tasks to work with resources that are common to almost everyone: working on the file system, manipulating office documents, and interacting with Internet resources.

    Sweigart's formula is consistent and effective: we start by reviewing the solution to the problem, which invites us to think about how everything must work behind the scenes, and then he shows us in greater or lesser detail how this solution was constructed. It is obvious that he is not the inventor of this method nor is he the only one who has used it in programming, other good examples are the books "Dive into Python" by Mark Pilgrim where a similar formula is applied with great success.

    In "The Big Book" this methodology is applied systematically throughout 81 programs ordered alphabetically, following a brief introduction we find three sections: "The Program in Action" where the author shows an example of program execution, then in "How It Works" he shows us the source code just mentioning implementation details, and "Exploring the Program" where he asks some questions to encourage the reader to deepen the understanding of the program or in some cases, extend it. Most probably the author's intention is not that we advance sequentially from beginning to end, but that among the large number of topics we work on those that call our attention, in this sense it is very useful Appendix A: "Tag Index" where he shows us a classification of the programs based on two systems: by length, and by characteristics.

    The result is not a book that intends to explain how Python works, or how programs are built, this has already been done by Sweigart in his previous books, especially in "Invent Your Own Computer Games". "The Big Book of Small Python Projects" should be understood more as a guide to lab experiments where you are given directions on an activity that you should do yourself, or perhaps ideally in a group with friends or work/study colleagues. In this sense, it would not be unreasonable for me to see a Wiki or a GitHub repository where people could post observations or variants of the programs.

    Personally, I have very much enjoyed all his books, and have recommended them all at one time or another. And I am also too close to his pedagogical approach that I have largely incorporated into my work as a teacher to offer an objective viewpoint. There are some implementation details that are not to my liking, such as the use of lowerCamelCase for naming variables, functions and methods, which contradicts the PEP8 that most use, or the preferential use of the format method rather than f-strings, but there is an open invitation here for everyone to adjust it to their liking. Beyond any captious remarks, I recommend this book without reservation, not only for individual reading but also as a basis for various collective activities. For example, as a source of ideas for a programming club or a programming camp, as complementary material for a professional training process, and even as inspiration to study other programming languages, I personally have been using it to study Scala.
    Images in this review
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    4 people found this helpful
    Report
  • Reviewed in the United States on November 16, 2023
    I'm a programmer who sometimes struggles to go from idea to a concrete program. This book works to help that problem on two levels. First, it shows you some simple algorithms and tools that can be used for stuff like graphics and movement. Second, it acts as a great reference for if you have an idea in the future, but are struggling on how to implement the idea. On top of that, the book is really good for getting the creative juices flowing. I highly recommend
    3 people found this helpful
    Report
  • Reviewed in the United States on October 9, 2021
    I am a self-taught Python programmer. My learning has come from a variety of online resources including Pluralsight online courses, Udemy online courses, and all of the books by Al Sweigart. If you're a total 100% newbie to Python you can learn from this book but it assumes a level of knowledge so your journey will be more challenging and I would recommend his earlier books before this one.

    Regardless this a great learning resource. Al does a great job of providing fun coding projects along with good explanations. In this book those explanations are more along the lines of "This is what the program does", showing the code, and then offering you examples of how to change the code and observe the changes to help you actually understand what the code is doing and how the program works as a whole.

    If you're needing more explanation of the code itself, as I stated, start with an earlier book. If you already a base, beginner level of Python understanding, then this book will definitely let you dig deeper into Python and improve your learning and is worth the read.

    While you may be able to get the code to copy and paste from an online book or other source, I recommend typing the code out. It helps enforce things in your brain and fingers and I still always type every single line of code. This also helps with your debugging skills because invariably there will be a typo somewhere you'll have to track down and fix. :-)
    4 people found this helpful
    Report

Top reviews from other countries

  • Gabriel
    2.0 out of 5 stars Nice
    Reviewed in Japan on August 7, 2024
    Good for kids. The print quality is good.
    Customer image
    Gabriel
    2.0 out of 5 stars Nice
    Reviewed in Japan on August 7, 2024
    Good for kids. The print quality is good.
    Images in this review
    Customer image Customer image
    Customer imageCustomer image
  • Marc J. Ouimet
    4.0 out of 5 stars Good & fun projects to learn Python programming
    Reviewed in Canada on April 18, 2023
    Loved the descriptions accompanying each project
  • Usman
    2.0 out of 5 stars Project code doesnt work
    Reviewed in Germany on October 7, 2021
    So I typed in all the code from the book into the IDE, ran the code but the projects don’t run as intended.

    Don’t waste your money on this crap.