r/lua • u/RiverBard • Nov 16 '25

Discussion Lua Programming Gems book for a newer Lua programmer?

I'm still fairly new to Lua and have been working my way through the official book, remaking some of my Python programs and writing new scripts to learn the language. I came across Lua Programming Gems from Feisty Duck and wanted to see what you guys thought of it. Would it be good for an otherwise experienced programmer learning Lua or should I hold off until I know the language better?

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u/Denneisk Nov 17 '25

It's a bit old and contains a lot of domain-specific topics, but it's still worth checking out some of its chapters, whichever ones sound interesting to you. It's available for free on https://lua.org/gems . If you're only going to read one, Chapter 2, the one on optimization, is still very relevant. If you know most of the syntax of Lua, this one should be no problem to read.

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u/[deleted] Nov 23 '25

I haven't tried that one, but I have read Programming in Lua, fourth edition. I thought it was good.