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ISLR (aka "An Introduction to Statistical Learning: With Applications in R") is a great book on the principles of machine learning (including regression). And you get practical experience using R to actually implement such applications.

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How beginner friendly do you think the book is? Asking as someone who's completely new to R (and data-related fields in general) who thinks the book might be interesting.

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If you know how to program in other languages, the concepts and practical examples will make perfect sense (even if the math occasionally doesn't).