The Joy of Clojure
by Michael Fogus, Chris Houser · first published 2011
62% recommend38% neutral1% critical
Why HN recommends it
Deep tour of Clojure's idioms, philosophy and functional design, with edge cases and end-of-chapter exercises. Suits programmers who already know some Clojure or Lisp, not first-time learners.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
Related books
2010–2023Clojure in action
Amit Rathore
Recommended by 12 · mentioned by 2712 recommend · 27 mention12 recommend · 2712 recommend
2009–2025Clojure programming
Chas Emerick
Recommended by 30 · mentioned by 4930 recommend · 49 mention30 recommend · 4930 recommend
2009–2026Programming Clojure
Stuart Halloway
Recommended by 37 · mentioned by 7737 recommend · 77 mention37 recommend · 7737 recommend
2010–2025Practical Clojure
Luke VanderHart
Recommended by 7 · mentioned by 147 recommend · 14 mention7 recommend · 147 recommend
2013–2026Clojure for the Brave and true
Daniel Higginbotham
Recommended by 89 · mentioned by 11689 recommend · 116 mention89 recommend · 11689 recommend
2015–2021Living Clojure
Carin Meier
Recommended by 13 · mentioned by 1613 recommend · 16 mention13 recommend · 1613 recommend
2012–2021Blood Song
Anthony Ryan
Recommended by 4 · mentioned by 44 recommend · 4 mention4 recommend · 44 recommend
Andrew mentioned The Joy of Clojure (http://www.amazon.com/The-Joy-Clojure-Thinking-Way/dp/193518...) and Clojure Programming (http://www.amazon.com/Clojure-Programming-Chas-Emerick/dp/14...). Both books are good, and each has its strong…
on “Shall We Use Clojure?” ↗…because it hits the right mix of Clojure newbie with experience programming. Among free online tutorials, Aphyr's Clojure from the Ground Up is my recommendation. A little deeper into the language, Fogus's Joy of Clojure hits more technical topics.
on “One Major Difference Between Clojure and Common Lisp” ↗You'll have lots of fun picking up Clojure. I'd recommend 'Clojure programming' by Chas Emerick... or 'Programming Clojure' by Stuart Halloway.. to get started and then 'The Joy of Clojure' by Fogus. My advice would be to not immediately get bogged down by taking on a large project (like an existing rails app) if you don't already have some experience with functional programming. You'll…
on “Ask HN: How to learn Clojure” ↗The Joy of Clojure It (kind of) enlightened me as to why OO programming is such a mess. I dont know of any similar, language agnostic book though...
on “Ask HN: What's the best development book you've read?” ↗…excellent but a time commitment. (If you had to pick between SICP and Clean Code because time is at a premium I'd err on the side of Clean Code for practicality. Writing maintainable code is paramount.) The Joy of Clojure (Fogus/Houser) is excellent and mentally digestable even if you have no Lisp or Clojure background.
on “Ask HN: What are some of the best written programming books?” ↗Clojure: The Joy of Clojure. Not for beginners, but it's excellent. http://www.amazon.com/Joy-Clojure-Michael-Fogus/dp/161729141... I've heard good thing about Clojure for the Brave and True, free online: http://www.braveclojure.com/
on “Ask HN: What are the latest and greatest books on your favorite language?” ↗…achieves reasonable depth. [1] The high level of accessibility reflects Halloway's background in the training industry and the his expertise in Clojure. His book is efficient in the same manner as Clojure. Joy of Clojure is a good book. It goes deeper while assuming more of the reader. The technical detail is useful and interesting, but for me, the narrative seems a bit less cohesive [disclaimer: I have the first edition,…
on “One Major Difference Between Clojure and Common Lisp” ↗The Joy of Clojure - Michael Fogus and Chris Houser (http://www.manning.com/fogus/) Riveting look at the language and functional programming - covers edge cases, gives lots of idiomatic examples, and goes deep into the…
on “Ask HN: Best book you read in 2010 and briefly why” ↗Nah. Find a good book though, like The Joy of Clojure or Programming Clojure to get you through the fundamental bits.
on “Ask HN: What should be my next programming language?” ↗I also think The two I'm currently reading together at the moment are both really nice examples of tech books with a narrative - The Joy of Clojure and The Little Schemer.
on “Why read and write tech books?” ↗…idiosyncrasies. I have difficulties just remembering the syntax for getting the list of environment variables. > what other languages I might enjoy solving problems in Clojure - as intro I had "The Joy of Clojure" by Michael Fogus
on “Ask HN: What made programming finally click for you?” ↗…possible when I'm learning alone. Usually I don't get something until the fifth person describes it from the tenth different angle. That's most of what I can think of off hand. I really enjoyed The Joy of Clojure [7], though haven't checked out the newer version. Programming Collective Intelligence [8] is a fun book, and is what made me want to go back down the maths route to get more into machine learning. And…
on “Jurassic Park computer system in the browser” ↗Might as well check out Joy of Clojure by Michael Fogus also, really good book.
on “Clojure 1.7 is now available” ↗Joy Of Clojure
on “Ask HN: What books had the greatest effect on how you structure your code?” ↗Here's a list of books that I read this year and liked. My favorite was Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. The rest are all worth reading. I hesitated to put "The Joy of Clojure" on that list because it's too narrow, but it's one of the best programming books I've seen. http://diegobasch.com/books
on “Ask HN: Best books you read in 2012” ↗