For Newbee Programmers

Try Ruby

http://tryruby.org

• Play with ruby in a browser.

Learn to program

http://pragprog.com/book/ltp2/learn-to-program

• Excellent book that both my wife and nephew read / enjoyed. Lean programming in general using the ruby language.

After that...

Ruby Programming Language

https://pragprog.com/book/ruby4/programming-ruby-1-9-2-0

• This book walks through ruby in a quick and complete fashion

Agile Web Development with Rails

https://pragprog.com/book/rails51/agile-web-development-with-rails-5-1

• An absolutely amazing book that walks you through a day in the life of a web programmer and the Rails web framework

Rails Recipes

http://pragprog.com/book/rr2/rails-recipes

• LOVED this one.. for once you know some rails and want to fill in the gaps / see awesome approaches to sticky situations