Anatomy of Lisp
Anatomy of Lisp by John Allenby Allen, John
Shares rank 71 of 115 programming books by recommenders
Recommended for deep dives into Lisp internals and for anyone implementing their own Lisp; the book is now free online. One critic says they can no longer recommend it.
Recommended for deep dives into Lisp internals and for anyone implementing their own Lisp; the book is now free online. One critic says they can no longer recommend it.
4 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 3
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 75%
Recommended in 1 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 3 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 1 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Deep look at Lisp internals
“still is an excellent read for those who want to dive deep into Lisp's interna”
Comment from 17 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: I wrote a technical history book on Lisp” Useful for implementing your own Lisp
“It's well worth a read for anyone who wants to implement their own Lisp.”
Comment from 18 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: I wrote a technical history book on Lisp” Freely available online
“the book itself is now freely available”
Comment from 18 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: I wrote a technical history book on Lisp”
Other programming books people recommend
The four most recommended other programming books, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crafting Interpretersby Robert Nystrom | 60 | 4 | 94% | 10 | — | Approved |
| Clean Codeby Robert C. Martin | 31 | 87 | 26% | 9 | — | — |
| The Pragmatic Programmerby Andy Hunt and Dave Thomas | 28 | 1 | 97% | 7 | — | Approved |
| How to Design Programsby Matthias Felleisen and Robert Bruce Findler and Matthew Flatt and Shriram Krishnamurthi | 18 | 2 | 90% | 7 | — | Approved |
| Anatomy of Lispby Allen, JohnThis page | 3 | 1 | 75% | 1 | — | — |
What people said
All 4 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“the book itself is now freely available”
“but I can’t really recommend it today”
“It's well worth a read for anyone who wants to implement their own Lisp.”
“still is an excellent read for those who want to dive deep into Lisp's interna”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.