Land of Lisp
Land of Lisp by Conrad Barskiby Conrad Barski
Shares rank 30 of 115 programming books by recommenders
Recommended as a playful, comic-style introduction to Lisp and functional programming, and as a lasting favourite. Critics find it basic and one calls it a poor introduction.
Recommended as a playful, comic-style introduction to Lisp and functional programming, and as a lasting favourite. Critics find it basic and one calls it a poor introduction.
7 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 6
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 86%
Recommended in 5 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 6 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 6 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 5 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, 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
Good introduction to functional programming
“comics and games with functional programming to intentionally separate you from vibe coding traditional tools”
Comment from 13 Feb 2026 in “Ask HN: What would you recommend a vibe coder learn about how all this works?” “Another good introduction, full-nonsense”
Comment from 6 May 2026 in “They Called It LISP For A Reason” Lasting favourite with fond memories
“Land of lisp is still one of my favourite alternative programming books.”
Comment from 17 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: I wrote a technical history book on Lisp” “I have fond memories of reading/studying Land of Lisp many years ago.”
Comment from 27 Oct 2026 in “OpenLDK: Bringing the Java World into Common Lisp” Pairs well with SICP and Haskell
“titles like Learn You A Haskell For Great Good and Land of Lisp really capture the zeitgeist”
Comment from 7 Dec 2025 in “Perl's decline was cultural” “Reading SICP and Land of Lisp gave me a newfound appreciation for programming and design.”
Comment from 1 Feb 2026 in “Guix System First Impressions as a Nix User”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Considered basic for beginners
“though its probably a bit basic”
Comment from 25 Aug 2026 in “What's new in Emacs 31.1”
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 |
| Land of Lispby Conrad BarskiThis page | 6 | 1 | 86% | 5 | — | — |
What people said
All 8 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I have fond memories of reading/studying Land of Lisp many years ago.”
“though its probably a bit basic”
“a very, very bad introduction”
“Another good introduction, full-nonsense”
“Land of lisp is still one of my favourite alternative programming books.”
“comics and games with functional programming to intentionally separate you from vibe coding traditional tools”
“Reading SICP and Land of Lisp gave me a newfound appreciation for programming and design.”
“titles like Learn You A Haskell For Great Good and Land of Lisp really capture the zeitgeist”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.