On Lisp
On Lisp by Paul Grahamby Paul Graham
Shares rank 13 of 115 programming books by recommenders
Recommended for its worked examples on Lisp macros and techniques, and a free download from the author. Critics say parts reflect outdated practice.
Recommended for its worked examples on Lisp macros and techniques, and a free download from the author. Critics say parts reflect outdated practice.
10 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 9
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 90%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 9 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 9 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 4 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
Worked examples to follow along
“He says better, and with more examples than I'd provide in a comment block”
Comment from 9 Jul 2026 in “A Road to Lisp: Why Lisp” “you can work all of the examples in Graham's On Lisp in Python”
Comment from 17 Jul 2026 in “A Road to Lisp: Which Lisp” Enjoyable, well-regarded Lisp reading
“I enjoyed books On Lisp and Let Over Lambda”
Comment from 10 Jul 2026 in “A Road to Lisp: Why Lisp” “Graham's book "On Lisp" is really good.”
Comment from 4 Aug 2026 in “Haters”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Some advice dated by current standards
“it does lots of things I wouldn’t consider good practice today”
Comment from 14 Aug 2026 in “Gödel, Escher, Elisp: The Beauty of Macros”
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 Hunt and Thomas | 28 | 1 | 97% | 7 | — | Approved |
| How to Design Programsby Felleisen, Findler, Flatt and Krishnamurthi | 18 | 2 | 90% | 7 | — | Approved |
| On Lispby Paul GrahamThis page | 9 | 1 | 90% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
9 of the 10 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“pg wrote a treatise on Lisp macros (free download)”
“it does lots of things I wouldn’t consider good practice today”
“Graham's book "On Lisp" is really good.”
“you can work all of the examples in Graham's On Lisp in Python”
“I enjoyed books On Lisp and Let Over Lambda”
“He says better, and with more examples than I'd provide in a comment block”
“the paper stock is amazing (I got to choose it!). The print quality is also great.”
“Learning how to implement Prolog in pg's On Lisp was a fun way to spend multiple weeks programming.”
“I went through all the stages of grief reading On Lisp”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.