A well-paced, easy-to-read, and practical guide to Scala for Java programmers. Covers important aspects of this powerful multi-paradigm language, ensuring that you can become productive with Scala right away.

In Pragmatic Scala, Venkat provides a solid foundation to help you get started with Scala in a thorough yet succinct book that you can (and should) read cover to cover. He explores the most important topics you’ll need to get comfortable with Scala, starting with the REPL and progressing through functional programming in Scala, handling concurrency with actors, and Java interoperability. You will definitely want to fire up your editor or IDE and code along with the book’s numerous, interesting, and fun examples!

In a world of tweets, blogs, and bite-sized videos, there is still a place for the long-form narrative. It gives a teacher the time necessary to introduce challenging and complex topics. And, if we’re being honest, Scala is a challenging and complex topic. Take this opportunity for Venkat to guide you through the Scala language, functional programming, concurrency, testing strategies, and more.

There are two reasons why I recommend this book for all my Scala classes. It covers the basics without insulting your intelligence and escalates you to advanced topics without going over your head. A must-have for anyone learning Scala.

The thing I like most about Venkat is the way he can introduce complex concepts or unknown topics through a conversational style that starts with something that the reader is familiar with and then builds upon it. This latest version of Pragmatic Scala is no exception. I highly recommend it to anyone looking to learn Scala, especially those coming from a Java background.