What worked for me: read Norvig's tutorials (How to write lisp). It gives basic understanding. Then continue enhancing that tiny language, add more features.

What worked for me: read Norvig's tutorials (How to write lisp). It gives basic understanding. Then continue enhancing that tiny language, add more features. Start with an interpreter, they are easier to grasp. You can always add a compiler later. I grabbed Scheme R5RS standard and started implementing it in Kotlin: https://github.com/kovrik/scheme-in-kotlin https://github.com/kovrik/scheme-in-kotlin Then added more Clojure-like and Racket-like features, plus some Kotlin features.