9 Best Rust Programming Books for 2024 [Learn Rust Programming ASAP]

🧠 Did you know? According to a Stack Overflow survey, 81% (over 65,000) of developers said Rust is their favorite programming language.

What is Rust programming?

Rust programming is a high-level general-purpose programming language. It was designed for both performance and safety, something you rarely find in programming languages. Its syntax is similar to C++.

You’ll find that Rust is fast, memory-efficient and integrates well with other languages.

What companies use Rust?

There are hundreds of companies using Rust including:

✅ Mozilla

✅ Dropbox

✅ Klarna

✅ Postmates

✅ Braintree

And many more.

This post contains affiliate links. I may receive compensation if you buy something. Read my disclosure for more details.

TLDR: Best Rust Programming Books

🔥 Best Overall 🔥
The Rust Programming Language
&
Programming Rust: Fast, Safe Systems Development

💥 Best for Newbies 💥
Hands-on Rust: Effective Learning through 2D Game Development and Play

1. The Rust Programming Language

↘️ Ideal for: Rust newbies
↘️ Topics covered: Rust 2018 fundamentals and advanced concepts

The Rust Programming Language is AWESOME.

It’s the official book on Rust programming and was written by the Rust development team at Mozilla.

Plus it’s on No Starch Press which gives it an A+ in our book.

This version covers the major update Rust 2018 which includes features like Clippy, Rustmft and IDE support.

🚨 Note: Yes, the book says 2018. But don’t be alarmed. With the major Rust 2021 release, the updates were actually relatively minimal.

As we said, this book is flipping awesome.

You’ll learn everything from installation all the way up to creating scalable programs. And everything in between:

✅ creating functions

✅ binding variables

✅ testing

✅ error handling

✅ refactoring

And beyond.

Not only is it packed with code examples, but you’ll also build 3 complete projects:

• a number guessing game
• command line tool
• multithreaded server

You’ll also find an appendix on Rust development tools.

➡️ The Rust Programming Language is the authoritative documentation on Rust.

See what Rust developers are saying about The Rust Programming Language:

Should be the first book for learning Rust…

– Amazon Customer (and Rust developer)

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2. Programming Rust: Fast, Safe Systems Development

↘️ Ideal for: experienced Rust developers
↘️ Topics covered: fundamentals, tools

Programming Rust is tied for best overall in our list of Rust programming books.

But unlike our first book which is good for Rust newbies, Programming Rust is for experienced Rust developers.

It is a little more up-to-date than The Rust Programming Language and covers the newest major release – Rust 2021. This is considered a much smaller update than Rust 2018.

So this is a perfect follow-up to to learning the fundamentals from The Rust Programming Language.

After learning Rust’s fundamental data types, you’ll discover:

✅ how to write flexible, efficient code

✅ Rust’s power tools like closures and iterators

✅ collections and strings

✅ unsafe code and foreign function interfaces

And much more.

➡️ Programming Rust is the best Rust programming book for experienced developers who want to level up their skills.

See what Rust developers are saying about Programming Rust:

This is a go to book once you read The Rust Programming Language (“the book”). It’s very well written, with great examples and explanations…

– mac, Rust Developer

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🔥 Geena’s Hot Take

I’m gonna go with the masses here and say you should go for the one-two punch with The Rust Programming Language and Programming Rust.

You’ll go from Rust rube to Rust wizard. 🧙‍♂️

✨ Ready for a whirlwind Rust video course? Check out Rust Programming: The Complete Developer’s Guide on Zero to Mastery.

3. Hands-on Rust: Effective Learning through 2D Game Development and Play

↘️ Ideal for: Rust newbies
↘️ Topics covered: Rust fundamentals, game development

Hands-on Rust is one of the best Rust programming books for beginners. If you love gaming, you need this book.

It’s a fun way to learn Rust because you’ll be building games the entire time.

You’ll start with the basics: building a simple “Hello, World” program. After getting comfortable with your developer environment, you’ll learn the basics of Rust with tons of practical examples.

Then you’ll build a game similar to Flappy Bird.

And you’ll finish with a complete 2D dungeon crawler game. This includes building monsters, creating magical items and designing a dungeon.

➡️ Hands-on Rust teaches you how to build games using Rust fundamentals.

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4. Rust in Action

↘️ Ideal for: Rust newbies, intermediate programmers
↘️ Topics covered: file manipulation, networking, concurrency

Rust in Action is one of the best Rust programming books for intermediate programmers new to Rust.

It assumes prior programming experience. You’ll also find that the book, unlike others on our list, moves at an accelerated pace.

Going beyond syntax and structure, you’ll find tons of real-world examples looking at:

✅ file manipulation

✅ networking

✅ kernel-level programming

✅ parallelism

✅ concurrency

And more.

➡️ With Rust in Action, you’ll learn everything from beginner to advanced concepts in Rust.

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5. Rust Web Programming: A Hands-On Guide to Developing Fast and Secure Web Apps with the Rust Programming Language

↘️ Ideal for: experienced developers new to Rust
↘️ Topics covered: creating scalable web apps, data persistence, unit tests

Rust Web Programming is one of the best Rust programming books for experienced developers new to Rust.

Similar to Rust in Action, you’ll learn beginner and advanced Rust concepts. But with Rust Web Programming, you’ll build scalable web applications.

While building these apps, you’ll:

✅ apply data persistence

✅ build login and config modules

✅ build unit tests

And more.

Then you’ll deploy your Rust app with AWS EC2.

➡️ Rust Web Programming teaches you how to build robust web applications using Rust.

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6. Beginning Rust: Get Started with Rust

↘️ Ideal for: experienced programmers new to Rust
↘️ Topics covered: Rust 2021 fundamentals

Beginning Rust is another one of our Rust programming books for experienced developers new to Rust.

But you’ll find that unlike Rust in Action and Rust Web Programming, you won’t learn much beyond the basics of Rust programming.

You’ll learn Rust fundamentals including:

✅ heterogeneous data structures and data sequences

✅ functions, generic functions, structs

✅ closures, ranges and slices

✅ traits and lifetimes

And beyond.

➡️ By the end of Beginning Rust, you should be able to build your own robust applications using Rust 2021.

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7. Beginning Rust Programming

↘️ Ideal for: new and experienced developers
↘️ Topics covered: libraries, concurrency, games

Rust Programming is ideal for developers who want to build libraries and games like Hangman.

You’ll start with the basics and build up to exploring:

✅ concurrency

✅ relational databases

✅ web communications

✅ device programming

And more.

With step-by-step instructions, you’ll solve real-world problems while integrating Rust with other programming languages.

➡️ Beginning Rust Programming takes a deep dive into functional programming with Rust.

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8. Rust Standard Library Cookbook: Over 75 Recipes to Leverage the Power of Rust

↘️ Ideal for: experienced developers new to Rust
↘️ Topics covered: Rust recipes

Rust Standard Library Cookbook is one of the best Rust programming books for learning tried and true solutions to common problems.

It’s different than any other book on our list because instead of learning how to build games or build apps, you’ll find it uses the Rust Standard Library to implement solutions to common problems.

Some of what you’ll discover includes:

✅ implementing and folding collections

✅ handling various file types

✅ implementing parsing

✅ locking resources

And much, much more.

By the end of the book, you should be proficient with the Rust Standard Library.

➡️ Rust Standard Library Cookbook… Rustloaf, it’s what’s for dinner. 🦀🍞

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9. The Complete Rust Programming Reference Guide

↘️ Ideal for: advanced Rust developers
↘️ Topics covered: designing data structures, multi-threaded programming, application profiling

The Complete Rust Programming Reference Guide is one of the best Rust programming books for advanced Rust developers.

You’ll learn how to:

✅ design complex data structures with Rust

✅ create reusable components with Rust

✅ explore muliti-threaded programming

✅ benchmark and test

✅ create efficient web applications

And beyond.

➡️ The Complete Rust Programming Reference Guide is for advanced Rust programmers who want to master Rust.

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Best Rust Programming Books: Conclusion

Today we looked at the best Rust programming books including:

🔥 Best Overall 🔥
The Rust Programming Language
&
Programming Rust: Fast, Safe Systems Development

💥 Best for Newbies 💥
Hands-on Rust: Effective Learning through 2D Game Development and Play

So whether you’re a code newbie or a Rust master, we think these are the best Rust programming books out there.

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