The Big Book of R has a collection of almost 400 free R books and as we round out 2023 it’s the perfect time to look back at which have been the most popular. I track the stats and they’re openly accessible.

Some of these also have print versions. Get them either as a treat for yourself, a gift for a friend or colleague or even just to make the most out of your 2023 personal development budget!

I’ve included an affiliate link to print versions where available. Not only will you be getting the satisfaction of a physical copy in your hands, but a small slice of that sale will go to supporting the Big Book of R.

Here’s the 10 most popular books of 2023!

Number 10: Modern Statistics with R

A comprehensive approach covering statistics in the R language. Covers installation, messy data, programming concepts, classic stats, models, deployment and debugging, to name a few.

Free version or get it in print .

Number 9: A Crash Course in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) using R

R is great for many things, including geospatial analysis. This book condenses a lot of info and aims to get you up to speed as quickly as possible.

Free version, no print available.

Number 8: Analyzing Financial and Economic Data with R

“Since you are reading this book, you are likely a data analyst looking for alternative and more efficient ways to add value to your organization, an undergraduate or graduate student in the first steps of learning data science, or an experienced researcher, looking for new computational tools. In any case, be assured that you are in the right place. This book will teach you how to use R and RStudio for data analysis in finance and economics.”

Free version or get it in print .

Number 7: A Business Analyst’s Introduction to Business Analytics

The 7th most popular book in the collection is an introduction to Business Analytics using R and has an accompanying youtube playlist.

Free version or get it in print .

Number 6: Big Data with R – Exercise book

This one is tied to RStudio Conf 2020 and still is pretty popular. It’s based on 2-day workshop that covers how to analyze large amounts of data in R

Free version, no print available.

Number 5: An Introduction to ggplot2

Another great beginner intro for GGplot, this one gets straight to plotting and covers all the basics.

Free version, no print available

Number 4: R Without Statistics

When David Keyes first announced his idea for this book, I was super excited! David takes such a practical approach to solving problems with R that don’t revolve around modelling, but all the other aspects of data science like managing workflows, reporting, making slides and automations.

The free version is available right now, and you can pre-order the print version .

Number 3: APIs for social scientists: A collaborative review

Provides a review of over 20 APIs that may be useful for social scientists. Covers a wide selection of APIs from google, Instagram, Youtube and others.

Free version, no print available

Number 2: A ggplot2 Tutorial for Beautiful Plotting in R

Cédric Sherer is well known in the R community for his ability to create amazing data visualizations. He regularly gives workshops and kindly made this bumper tutorial free for anyone looking to improve their skills.

Free version, no print available.

Number 1: R for Data Science

I think this won’t come as a surprise to many. It’s the number one recommended resource for people learning R and with its recent update the second edition ensures it’s as relevant as ever. With its patient learning curve and approach to giving the reader quick wins, it really sets up newcomers in the best way possible.

Free online or get it in Print .

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