Book reviews are delicate. You don't want to spoil it, but you also want to give potential readers a taste of what to expect. It's an artful balance between providing context and keeping the interest alive. I have tried to strike that balance in this review by offering you just enough to lure you in without revealing too much.
A little back story: I first heard about this book from my good friend Tim at Djangonaut Space and added it to my read list. I had just created the tech book club channel on Black Python Devs Discord because reading with other people is fun. I mentioned this book, and we got to voting on it, and it passed. This would be the first book we read as a book club. We got a few copies gifted to us by Adam Johnson through Ngazetungue Muheue, which we are still honored to get as a community that just clocked one year. This review is a personal appreciation to Adam for recognizing our efforts and being part of our book club journey.
I do not know about you, but any written material that calls me dear reader has me locked in. That is my soft spot. Why? It's personalized for me. In that moment, it is just me and the author revealing the hidden meanings behind the words hidden in the shell case of the book.
I like how the book starts and how it's personalized to show the inspiration and its beginning.
The expectations are also set; you clearly know what you are in for.
Like a choose-your-own-adventure story or a show like Kaleidoscope, this book offers the freedom to cherry pick the sections that peak your interest or read it as a linear narrative from beginning to end. The best of both worlds.
The book has twelve chapters. It starts with documentation, the source of truth, and explores how to access documentation offline (DevDocs) or online. It then progresses towards creating your own System Checks.
What I find neat about the book is that it explains code quality tools and then shows you how to create your own custom tooling as well.
"Give a man fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." - Lao Tzu.
Technical books can be a tough read. Their practicality often demands constant switching between the book and the code editor, which can quickly become boring. This book, however, goes beyond the typical technical text. It incorporates personality. Through small jokes and the use of unconventional words like shebang!, the book injects humor and keeps you engaged.
The book promises to boost your Django development. This means you need to have written some Django and Python code to easily grasp the content. Despite this, every code highlighted in the book is deconstructed and explained so that you can understand what each line does.
Resources/links per page are displayed as footnotes for easy copy and paste, allowing you to read them later to avoid distractions during your reading session.
Some books are read and never opened again, while others are read and referenced later. This book is in both categories: it can be read for enjoyment and also used as a reference.
We have questions about the significance of names. Let me pause to address a different question in this context: what is in a book? Specifically, what is in this book?
The book promises to boost your Django development by introducing you to some widely used open-source tools, providing instructions on how to use them, providing behind-the-scenes action of how the tools we use work, how features of Django work like fixes and settings, and most vital of all, how to customize the tools to fit your needs. Additionally, it provides a list of tools and concepts the book did not cover.
Does it boost your Django development? In my own personal opinion, yes, it does. However, for you, there is only one way to find out; read it!
I wrote this review because it's a gem, and I believe everyone should have the opportunity to discover its hidden treasures. I love having fun with words.
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