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The Top 3 Books to Get Started with Data Science Right Now

And build a great foundation of knowledge

Tyler Folkman
Towards Data Science
3 min readNov 16, 2019

Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash

I remember when I was first learning data science. There were almost too many resources and too much to learn that it was easy to get lost. I explored many avenues that while interesting, in retrospect, were not the most efficient way to get started. If you are just starting your journey and want the 3 best books to help you focus your studies, this is the article for you.

Python For Data Analysis

I start with the classic Pandas book written by the creator of Pandas himself: Python for Data Analysis. I’ll be the first to admit that this is not a perfect book. It reads almost like a cookbook of sorts, but I have found it to be the best way to get started with Python for data analytics. It will teach you how to get set up with Python as well as load, wrangle, clean, and visualize data.

When starting out, I think it is a much better strategy to begin with the data processing and analytics pieces as it helps you learn to really understand your data and emphasizes the importance of all the steps that need to happen before machine learning. Also, this tends to be the best way to get comfortable using Python for data science and sets you up well for the next book.

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Published in Towards Data Science

Your home for data science and AI. The world’s leading publication for data science, data analytics, data engineering, machine learning, and artificial intelligence professionals.

Written by Tyler Folkman

Chief Technology and AI Officer at BEN/TubeBuddy. Get your FREE list of useful data science resources: https://datascienceleadership.substack.com/

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