101 Ray-Tracing, Ray-Marching and Path-Tracing Projects (Paperback)

I have read a lot of books on this subject and this is the clearest.

I bought this on a whim after seeing it mentioned in a forum thread, and I am glad I did. The exercises at the end of each chapter are worth doing — they caught a few misconceptions I did not know I had. I found myself making notes in the margins, which is always a good sign. If you have the prerequisites, this is an easy recommendation. I will be keeping it on my desk rather than the shelf.

Genuinely excellent — I finished it in a week and immediately started again.

There is a particular kind of technical book that is dense without being difficult, and this is one of them. Some terminology is introduced without much ceremony; I had to look a few things up along the way. I particularly liked the way the author builds up from simple cases before introducing the harder material. Some of the diagrams are dense and I had to reread a few sections, though that may just be me. If you have the prerequisites, this is an easy recommendation. I will be keeping it on my desk rather than the shelf.

This is the one to get if you are serious about programming.

I read this over a couple of weekends alongside a small side project, which turned out to be the ideal way to approach it. I found myself making notes in the margins, which is always a good sign. Some of the material is available elsewhere, but rarely presented this clearly. It is denser than the page count suggests, and I found myself slowing down around the middle. If you have the prerequisites, this is an easy recommendation. I will be keeping it on my desk rather than the shelf.