I'm enjoying 'Data Structures and Algorithms using Python'[1]

Coming from a C++ background, I felt uncomfortable using python as more than a glue/scripting language, because the way resources are managed is treated very magically in most tutorials.

Say I want to use the OpenCV library to fling matrices and images around, it's hard to be confident of what the runtime is going to do with the data without having a really good handle on what mechanisms python has for dealing with data. Which is what this book is about.

As useful as they are for interviews, classic algorithms and data structures are probably not a big part of most peoples work, but understanding how they can be done in python helps you to make assumptions and use libraries in smart ways!

Most of all, it's fun and well written, for an algorithms book. It's more about python than algorithms, so if you were student wanting to learn algorithms, this book is better[2].

[1] http://www.amazon.co.uk/Data-Structures-Algorithms-Using-Pyt... [2]http://www.amazon.co.uk/Introduction-Algorithms-T-Cormen/dp/...

I guess the question is what do you mean by advanced topics? What direction do you want to go in? The latter book you mentioned seems to cover a number of topics and is probably a good bet.

If you are interested in the web, both these books were good: http://www.amazon.com/Python-Web-Programming-Steve-Holden/dp... http://www.amazon.com/The-Definitive-Guide-Django-Developmen...

Here are a few books that cover some "advanced?" topics that I'd like to read when I have time (would also like to hear other peoples' recommendations on them): http://www.amazon.com/Python-Data-Analysis-Wes-McKinney/dp/1... http://www.amazon.com/Twisted-Network-Programming-Essentials... http://www.amazon.com/Foundations-Python-Network-Programming... http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Tornado-Michael-Dory/dp/1... http://onlinebookplace.com/programming-computer-vision-with-...

I'm not sure on your background or the quality of these books, but an understanding of data structures, algorithms, and object oriented programming could be considered important: http://www.amazon.com/Data-Structures-Algorithms-Using-Pytho... http://www.amazon.com/Python-Algorithms-Mastering-Language-E... http://www.amazon.com/Python-3-Object-Oriented-Programming/d...

Although these and other intermediate to advanced topics tend to be covered better in non-language-specific books such as this shotgun blast to the head. Don't worry, it's just an "introduction": http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Algorithms-Thomas-H-Corme...