To understand monads in a context where they are both useful and necessary (Haskell) I highly recommend the later chapters of Learn You a Haskell for Great Good

To understand monads in a context where they are both useful and necessary (Haskell) I highly recommend the later chapters of Learn You a Haskell for Great Good (http://learnyouahaskell.com/ http://learnyouahaskell.com/). I'd read through all the different analogies (burritos, space suits, etc) and it didn't click until LYAHFGG showed how they are a logical way of attaching some extra context to a bit of data (or more generally a computation).