# Writing an Interpreter in Go by Thorsten Ball

4 Hacker News commenters recommended Writing an Interpreter in Go by Thorsten Ball and 0 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 3 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Recommended as a hands-on, approachable guide to building interpreters, with a follow-up on virtual machines. No recurring criticism appears in the quotes.

## Why people recommend it

- Good addition to compiler literature (1 comments): ""Writing an Interpreter in Go" (and it's followup about writing a virtual machine) is a good addition" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47730897))
- Liked its hands-on approach (1 comments): "I worked through "Writing an Interpreter in Go" and I liked the approach." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50220483))
- Praised as among the best on the subject (1 comments): "Absolutely best books I've ever read on the subject." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50220343))

## 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=Writing+an+Interpreter+in+Go+by+Thorsten+Ball&tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Writing an Interpreter in Go by Thorsten Ball", https://hackerapproved.com/p/writing-an-interpreter-in-go/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).