Have you ever struggled to choose good books related to the data universe? Have you been disappointed by a book whose content seemed copied from Wikipedia? Well, I have!

That’s why, after many nights of disappointing reads and dozens of frustrating purchases, I decided to put together this top 5 with the best books I’ve ever read that, in my opinion, are the best in the data field.

1 - Hands-On Machine Learning with Scikit-Learn, Keras & TensorFlow

Link to the book: https://amzn.to/3EDpSMV.

If you’ve ever searched for machine learning or data science books, you’ve certainly come across this one before. In my opinion: this book should be a “must-read” for every data scientist.

This book borders on perfection — it brings together the best of both worlds, delivering all the necessary theoretical background, always supported by excellent practical code examples and illustrative images.

Certainly perhaps the best book on machine learning I’ve ever read.

2 - How to Lie with Statistics

Link to the book: https://amzn.to/3hDCmea.

This book is incredible. It taught me a lot about statistics, and perhaps one of the most important lessons in the world of data science: correlation does not imply causation.

A practical example to understand this, and one I quite like: if the rooster always crows before sunrise, therefore the sun only rises because the rooster crows.

Obviously this is a clear observation in this case, but sometimes it’s not, and this book does a great job of explaining it.

3 - Storytelling with Data: A Data Visualization Guide for Business Professionals

Link to the book: https://amzn.to/3E7NJmj.

This is an essential book that complements the one above: How to Lie with Statistics. In that one you learn how to read charts and in this one you learn how to build them, and actually tell a story with your data, rather than just “throwing it on the screen”.

Reading this book should be mandatory for anyone who will be presenting based on an exploratory data analysis.

4 - Data Science for Business: What You Need to Know about Data Mining and Data-Analytic Thinking

Link to the book: https://amzn.to/3tq56d1.

While the other books on this list are more technical, this one is more focused for those who want a more business-oriented view of data science. In this book you will learn something essential: what the business expects you as a data scientist to do.

Absolutely indispensable for anyone who is: seeking career growth, but doesn’t know what they need to do to get that recognition.

You won’t find code in this book, only, as I said, a more business-oriented view of data science. That’s why I believe this is the perfect book to gift that supervisor of yours who has no idea what data science is.

5 - Grokking Algorithms: An Illustrated Guide for Programmers and Other Curious People

Link to the book: https://amzn.to/3O56Ba7.

I know, you’re probably thinking something like:

“Algorithms? Why should I learn that, I’m a data scientist not a programmer”

Well, that’s one way of thinking, but in my opinion the ability to develop fast and efficient algorithms is a huge differentiator for a data scientist.

Besides, the book is simply amazing, full of Python code examples and illustrative images of all the algorithms. If you’re struggling with logic, I definitely recommend reading this book.

Conclusion

What did you think of the book selection? Was there one that’s your favorite? Maybe one I forgot that you also think is great? Leave a comment below!