Recommended books to learn Magento development

Amazing collection of books on PHP, Zend (you remember that Magento is built on Zend framework, right?) and Magento from php[architect].

A wonderful study guide used by those who want to complete Zend PHP certification, but you can use it just for educational purposes.

Grokking Magento is probably one of the most recognizable study books in the industry – and that’s not just because of the cover, believe us. Ben Marks and Vinai Kopp are unquestionable influencers in the Magento world, so.

"For each topic they restate the problem, cover real world scenarios where the task might be useful, provide a step by step guide into how you’d research the particular issue in Magento’s code base, and then provide a solution to the problem." Alan Storm

Magento PHP Developer's Guide [Allan MacGregor]
This book is written for developers who have previous experience with PHP and PHP frameworks, such as Zend or CakePHP, and want to start developing and working with Magento. Even developers with previous experience with Magento will find the book extremely useful to gain a full understanding of Magento fundamentals, architecture, and overall philosophy.

Bart Delvaux is an experienced web developer from Belgium. If you are a developer with minor PHP knowledge and you want to start with Magento development, this book is for you. With its specially tailored recipes, it will guide you from simple development in Magento to the more advanced stuff. Even if you are an experienced Magento developer, some recipes in this book will interest you. The other recipes will serve as a good reference to look at.

Getting Started with Magento Module Development is a practical, hands-on guide to building Magento modules from scratch. This book provides an in-depth introduction and helps you discover features such as; blocks, controllers, models, configuration files, and other crucial elements which contribute to the Magento architecture. This book introduces the you to real-world modules and helps provide a strong foundation which you need to become a professional Magento module developer. The book explores best practices, tips and tricks.

This book is written in a friendly, Beginner’s Guide style with plenty of step-by-step instructions for installing, configuring, and using Magento to run your own e-commerce site. You will set up an example store in the book with enough information to adapt the instructions according to your needs.