# Build a Reasoning Model (From Scratch) by Sebastian Raschka

5 Hacker News commenters recommended Build a Reasoning Model (From Scratch) by Sebastian Raschka and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 4 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Recommended as a practical next step for learning to build reasoning models from scratch, with code designed to run on a regular laptop.

## Why people recommend it

- Author wrote excellent LLM books (3 comments): "I recommend his book, "Build a Reasoning Model (From Scratch)", which is also linked in the article." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48983333)) "as well as his new book on reasoning models that came out recently" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49430929)) "Sebastian is the author of two excellent books related to LLMs" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49910736))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Crafting Interpreters by Robert Nystrom](https://hackerapproved.com/p/crafting-interpreters.md): 60 recommend
- [Clean Code by Robert C. Martin](https://hackerapproved.com/p/clean-code.md): 31 recommend
- [The Pragmatic Programmer by Hunt and Thomas](https://hackerapproved.com/p/pragmatic-programmer.md): 28 recommend
- [How to Design Programs by Felleisen, Findler, Flatt and Krishnamurthi](https://hackerapproved.com/p/how-to-design-programs.md): 18 recommend
- [Mastering Emacs by Mickey Petersen](https://hackerapproved.com/p/mastering-emacs.md): 17 recommend

## Where to get it

- [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Build+a+Reasoning+Model+%28From+Scratch%29+by+Sebastian+Raschka&tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Build a Reasoning Model (From Scratch) by Sebastian Raschka", https://hackerapproved.com/p/build-a-reasoning-model/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).