Yes, everything -- even integers --- are objects in Ruby -- you can say 5.methods and Ruby will respond with a list of methods integers know. I think the best way to learn Ruby is Dave Thomas' classic "Pickaxe Book". This describes pure Ruby, as it predates Rails (not that I have anything against Rails, but a lot of people confuse Rails with Ruby which is a mistake). There is an updated version of the book for sale for Ruby 2.X, but the original is free at http://ruby-doc.com/docs/ProgrammingRuby/ and because most of the changes between versions are minor, it would serve nicely to learn current Ruby.