Hello, and welcome to learning Go! It's great to have you here. For the Love of Go is a book introducing the Go programming language, suitable for complete beginners, as well as those with experience programming in other languages. Includes free updates for life.

You can also buy this book at a discount as part of the Complete Go Library.

Reviews

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “A fantastic example of good technical writing. Clear, concise and easily digestible. I recommend it for anyone getting into Go.”
—Michael Duffy

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “A great way to dive into Go!”
—Max VelDink

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “I have been learning Go for about 6 months now and I have to say that For the Love of Go has lifted the fog for me and made some very important things clear! Thank you!”
—Catalin Lichi

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “John's writing is personable, human and funny—his examples are realistic and relevant. The test-driven instruction teaches Go in a deep, meaningful and engaging way.”
—Kevin Cunningham

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “A joy to read!”
—Ryunosuke Zoran

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Very friendly and accessible. This would probably be my pick for the absolute beginner to computer programming who wants to learn Go.”
—Jonathan Hall

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “The best technical book I have ever read. I love John’s style of teaching.”
—Josiah Ilesanmi

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Both the book and video hit that sweet spot of introducing the Go language while building real world code. Pacing is great and I didn't feel like the material was over my head. Writing code along with the video, in particular, works well for me. Watching an expert write and narrate both working and non-working code is great to see and hear.”
—Jackson Kato

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “A fantastic example of good technical writing. Clear, concise and easily digestible.”
—Michael Duffy

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Instant buy.”
—Piero Mamberti

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Unlike other Go books, this book’s writing style feels as if John is speaking to you in person and helping you along the way during the hands-on sections. Definitely worth reading!”
—@rockey5520

About the book

This book assumes no previous knowledge of programming, and gently introduces you to Go step by step, challenging you to apply each new concept as you learn it. If you’ve used Go before but feel somehow you skipped something important, this book will build your confidence in the fundamentals. Take your first steps toward mastery with my fun, readable, and easy-to-follow guide.

There’s also an accompanying video course—get the book and video bundle for a special price!

Throughout the book we'll be working together to develop a fun and useful project in Go: an online bookstore called Happy Fun Books. You’ll learn how to use Go to store data about real-world objects such as books, how to write code to manage and modify that data, and how to build useful and effective programs around it.

Each chapter introduces a new feature or concept, and sets you some goals to achieve, with complete, step-by-step explanations of how to solve them, and full code listings with accompanying tests.

Table of Contents

What you’ll learn

By reading this book and working through all the challenges and exercises, you'll learn:

• How to write tests in Go and how to develop projects guided by tests

• How to manage data in Go using built-in types, user-defined struct types, and collections such as maps and slices

• How to use objects to model problems in Go, and how to add behaviour to objects using methods

• How to use pointers to write methods for objects, and how to use types and validation to make your Go packages a delight to use

• How to build powerful, flexible programs using control structures like loops and functions

Even more importantly, you’ll learn a simple, fun, and effective way to approach software engineering projects in Go. Even though the material is beginner-friendly, you’ll be mastering some advanced techniques, and learning to design modules, packages, and APIs. These are essential skills in any modern software engineering role.

What you get

Your digital download is a ZIP file containing the book in PDF and ePub formats. This should be suitable for any ebook reader, Kindle, computer, phone, or tablet.

You can read a sample chapter in PDF format:

• Happy Fun Books

Updating to the latest edition

All my books come with free updates for life, so if you’ve bought a previous version of this book, here’s what you need to do to get the latest edition. Click the link in your original download email (make sure you save this, as it’s your key to future updates). You’ll see what looks like an error page saying your download link for the old edition has expired, but that’s okay: click the link in the text, and you’ll be sent a new download email for the current edition.