Introduction to Quantum Computing and Algorithms

A genuinely enjoyable read that also taught me a great deal.

This is the third book I have read on quantum computing this year, and it is comfortably the best of them. The author avoids over-explaining, which keeps the pace up but means you need to pay attention. The examples are small enough to type out and experiment with, which is exactly what I want from a book like this. The explanations are careful without being condescending, which is a difficult balance to strike. This is the book I wish had existed when I started working with quantum computing.

Not quite what I expected from the description, but there is material here.

I picked this up after getting stuck on a project and it turned out to be exactly the right book at the right time. The exercises at the end of each chapter are worth doing — they caught a few misconceptions I did not know I had. The author clearly knows the subject deeply and has thought hard about how to teach it. The author avoids over-explaining, which keeps the pace up but means you need to pay attention. Borrow it first if you can, or at least check the table of contents carefully before buying.