8 Best Rust Books in 2023

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  • Learn the basics of Rust
  • Understand how Rust represents values in memory
  • Grasp how ownership, moves, borrows, and lifetimes work in Rust
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  • understand system programming language problems and see how Rust provides unique solutions
  • get to know the core concepts of Rust to develop fast and safe applications
  • explore the possibility of integrating Rust units into existing applications to make them more efficient
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  • Learn the Rust programming language
  • Master Rust's unique borrow checker model for memory management without a garbage collector
  • Explore Rust implementations for file manipulation, networking, and kernel-level programming
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  • Learn Rust programming language
  • Understand memory-safety and thread-safety
  • Use Rust for embedded devices
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This is a list of the best Rust books in 2023 you can use to learn Rust programming language.

Rust is a systems programming language that helps you write faster, more reliable software. Rust offers control over low-level details (such as memory usage) in combination with high-level ergonomics, eliminating the hassle traditionally associated with low-level languages.

Best Rust books are:

1. Programming Rust Fast, Safe Systems Development

1. Programming Rust Book Cover

Programming Rust is a systems programming language that helps you write faster, more reliable software. It offers control over low-level details (such as memory usage) in combination with high-level ergonomics, eliminating the hassle traditionally associated with low-level languages.

The book begins by explaining how Rust represents values in memory and teaching beginners how to write simple functions in Rust. You will then learn about data types, ownership and borrowing, lifetimes, multithreading, and more. Finally, you will learn how to use Cargo - Rust's built-in package manager - to build and test your code safely and effectively.

With chapters on advanced features like macros and Rust editions, as well as appendixes on development tools and the rust standard library, Programming Rust is the perfect guide to help you learn Rust. Whether you're an experienced systems programmer or just starting, this book will show you how to take advantage of Rust's unique mix of safety, performance, and concurrency.

So what are you waiting for? Pick up a copy of Programming Rust today!

Authors: Jim Blandy, Jason Orendorff

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Topics covered

You will learn how to:

  • Learn the basics of Rust
  • Understand how Rust represents values in memory
  • Grasp how ownership, moves, borrows, and lifetimes work in Rust
  • Use Cargo to create and manage Rust projects
  • Generate documentation for Rust projects with rustdoc
  • Write unit tests for Rust code with the cargo test command
  • Publish Rust code on crates.io
  • Use Rust's high-level features, including generic code, closures, collections, and iterators
  • Understand concurrency in Rust: threads, mutexes, channels, and atomics
  • Learn how to use unsafe code inRust while preserving the integrity of ordinary code that uses it If you want to learn more about Rust, check out this collection of the best Rust books.

2. Rust Cookbook

2. Rust Cookbook Book Cover

This Rust Cookbook is filled with recipes that will help you write Rust programs effectively.

You'll get acquainted with the core concepts of Rust, and then explore advanced-level concepts such as error handling, macros, crates, and parallelism.

Toward the end of the book, you'll also learn how to create HTTP servers and web services using Rust.

This book is ideal for those who have a basic knowledge of Rust or any programming language. If you're a C/C++ developer migrating to Rust for various reasons, this book is also perfect for you. Get started today and learn how to write safer and more efficient code with Rust.

Authors: Vigneshwer Dhinakaran

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Topics covered

You will learn how to:

  • understand system programming language problems and see how Rust provides unique solutions
  • get to know the core concepts of Rust to develop fast and safe applications
  • explore the possibility of integrating Rust units into existing applications to make them more efficient
  • achieve better parallelism, security, and performance
  • explore ways to package your Rust application and ship it for deployment in a production environment
  • discover how to build web applications and services using Rust to provide high-performance to the end user

3. Rust in Action

3. Rust in Action Book Cover

If you're interested in learning Rust programming, Rust in Action is a great place to start. The book covers the basics of the language and its syntax, as well as how to use it effectively. It also delves into more advanced topics, such as building network applications and working with multithreading.

Rust in Action is a hands-on guide to systems programming with Rust. Written for inquisitive programmers, it presents real-world use cases that go far beyond syntax and structure. You'll explore Rust implementations for file manipulation, networking, and kernel-level programming and discover awesome techniques for parallelism and concurrency. Along the way, you'll master Rust's unique borrow checker model for memory management without a garbage collector.

It also delves into more advanced topics, such as building network applications and working with multithreading.

If you want to learn Rust, this is the book for you. It takes you beyond the basics of the language and teaches you how to use Rust in real-world scenarios. You'll explore Rust implementations for file manipulation, networking, and kernel-level programming, and discover awesome techniques for parallelism and concurrency.

Authors: Tim McNamara

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Topics covered

You will learn how to:

  • Learn the Rust programming language
  • Master Rust's unique borrow checker model for memory management without a garbage collector
  • Explore Rust implementations for file manipulation, networking, and kernel-level programming
  • Gain experience with parallelism and concurrency
  • Understand how computers work under the hood
  • Find out how to extend other applications with Rust
  • Write blindingly fast code

4. Beginning Rust Programming

4. Beginning Rust Programming Book Cover

Beginning Rust Programming is a book that quickly teaches you how to code in the Rust programming language.

The author Ric Messier delivers a highly practical, real-world guide to coding with Rust that dives immediately into functional programming and takes advantage of the language's blazing speed and memory efficiency.

Designed from the ground up to give you a running start to using the multiparadigm system programming language, this book will teach you how to use Rust's rich type system and ownership model to guarantee memory-safety and thread-safety while integrating Rust with other programming languages for embedded devices.

Perfect for programmers with some experience in other languages, like C or C++, Beginning Rust Programming is also a great pick for students new to programming and seeking a user-friendly and robust language with which to start their coding career.

Authors: Ric Messier

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Topics covered

You will learn how to:

  • Learn Rust programming language
  • Understand memory-safety and thread-safety
  • Use Rust for embedded devices
  • Integrate Rust with other programming languages

Ric Messier: About the author

Ric Messier is an information security expert with over 20 years of experience. He has written several books on the topic, including "Information Security: A Practical Approach" and "Digital Forensics: Windows Forensic Analysis Field Guide". Ric is currently a Principal Security Consultant with FireEye Mandiant. In his role, he provides consulting and support services to clients in a variety of industries. He has also taught courses on information security and digital forensics at the college level.

5. The Rust Programming Language (Covers Rust 2018)

5. The Rust Programming Language (Covers Rust 2018) Book Cover

The Rust Programming Language is the official book on Rust: an open source systems programming language that helps you write faster, more reliable software.

Rust offers control over low-level details (such as memory usage) in combination with high-level ergonomics, eliminating the hassle traditionally associated with low-level languages.

The authors of The Rust Programming Language, members of the Rust Core Team, share their knowledge and experience to show you how to take full advantage of Rust's features--from installation to creating robust and scalable programs.

You'll begin with basics like creating functions, choosing data types, and binding variables and then move on to more advanced concepts, such as:

  • Ownership and borrowing, lifetimes, and traits
  • Using Rust's memory safety guarantees to build fast, safe programs
  • Testing, error handling, and effective refactoring
  • Generics, smart pointers, multithreading, trait objects, and advanced pattern matching
  • Using Cargo, Rust's built-in package manager, to build, test, and document your code and manage dependencies

Authors: Steve Klabnik, Carol Nichols

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Topics covered

You will learn how to:

  • Rust development tools and editions
  • Learn how to install Rust
  • Write simple functions in Rust
  • Use data types in Rust
  • Understand ownership and borrowing in Rust
  • Use lifetimes in Rust
  • Manage dependencies with Cargo
  • Implement advanced features like macros and threads
  • Test your code effectively
  • Refactor your code safely
  • Rust editions: what they are and how to use them

6. Hands-on Rust

6. Hands-on Rust Book Cover

With Hands-on Rust book, you will learn game development skills applicable to other engines, including Unity and Unreal.

With Rust, you have a shiny new playground where your game ideas can flourish.

Each chapter in this book presents hands-on, practical projects that take you on a journey from "Hello, World" to building a full dungeon crawler game.

Start by setting up Rust and getting comfortable with your development environment. Learn the language basics with practical examples as you make your version of Flappy Bird. Discover what it takes to randomly generate dungeons and populate them with monsters as you build a complete dungeon crawl game.

Authors: Herbert Wolverson

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Topics covered

You will learn how to:

  • Learn the basics of Rust programming
  • Get comfortable with your development environment
  • Understand language basics with practical examples
  • Make your own version of Flappy Bird
  • Generate dungeons and populate them with monsters
  • Run game systems concurrently for high performance and fast gameplay
  • Debug your program
  • Unleash your creativity with magical items, tougher monsters, and intricate dungeon design
  • Add layered graphics and polish your game with style

Herbert Wolverson: About the author

Herbert Wolverson is a programmer and indie game developer who has been working in the industry since the late 1990s. He has taught programming and IT skills at various levels, and is active in the game development scene. Wolverson has also contributed to multiple Open Source projects.

7. Rust Web Programming A hands-on guide to developing fast and secure web apps with the Rust programming language

7. Rust Web Programming Book Cover

Rust is a safe, fast, and powerful programming language that you can use to build web applications. This book will teach you how to use Rust in conjunction with modern web development principles to create supercharged web apps.

You'll start by learning the basics of Rust, then move on to understanding how to avoid common pitfalls when migrating from traditional dynamic programming languages.

Next, you'll learn how to structure Rust code for a project that spans multiple pages and modules.

As you advance, you'll explore the Actix Web framework and get a basic web server up and running.

Finally, you'll be able to deploy your app onto an AWS EC2 instance.

By the end of this Rust book, you'll be confident in your ability to create scalable and fast web applications with Rust.

Authors: Maxwell Flitton

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Topics covered

You will learn how to:

  • Learn Rust programming language
  • Understand how to avoid common pitfalls when migrating from traditional dynamic programming languages
  • Structure Rust code for a project that spans multiple pages and modules
  • Explore the Actix Web framework and get a basic web server up and running
  • Process JSON requests and display data from the web app via HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
  • Persist data and create RESTful services in Rust
  • Deploy the Rust app with NGINX and Docker onto an AWS EC2 instance
  • Compare popular web frameworks in Rust to find the best one for your needs.

8. The The Complete Rust Programming Reference Guide Design, develop, and deploy effective software systems using the advanced constructs of Rust

8. The The Complete Rust Programming Reference Guide Book Cover

The Rust Programming Language is a systems programming language that runs blazingly fast, prevents segfaults, and guarantees thread safety. It accomplishes this without imposing any runtime overhead. This makes Rust a great choice for low-level tasks such as data processing, back-end development, and network programming.

The Complete Rust Programming Reference Guide will help you learn all the features of Rust with easy-to-follow explanations and examples. You'll start by learning the basics of the language, including variables, data types, functions, and control flow. Then you'll dive into more advanced concepts such as closures, iterators, maps, and strings. Next, you'll explore concurrency with rust's lightweight threads called "pips" before moving on to object-oriented programming in Rust. Finally, you'll get a crash course in Rust's macros, which allow you to extend the language to suit your needs.

By the end of this book, you'll be able to confidently write Rust programs that are safe, concurrent, and fast.

Authors: Rahul Sharma, Vesa Kaihlavirta, Claus Matzinger

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Topics covered

You will learn how to:

  • Learn Rust data structures
  • Understand how to store data using linked lists, arrays, stacks, and queues
  • Implement sorting and searching algorithms
  • Use Rust for systems programming
  • Use Rust for network programming
  • Use Rust for web programming
  • Study best practices and strategies in error handling
  • Create efficient web applications with the Actix-web framework
  • Use Diesel for type-safe database interactions in your web application
Josip Miskovic
About Josip

Josip Miskovic is a software developer at Americaneagle.com. Josip has 10+ years in experience in developing web applications, mobile apps, and games.

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