List of Recommended Web Design and Development Books

[justinOrel]

I'm a big fan of learning through books, so I will share with you some of my recommended titles on web development.

I will update this list periodically.


Web design theory
The Priciples of Beautiful Web Design - This book will teach you all the basic theory of design, in relation to web design. You'll learn how to lay solid foundations to a website, that will allow you to create 'sound' designs, way before you even think about how it is going to look.

HTML
HTML 4 For The World Wide Web - This book was one of the first I bought on the subject, over 8 years ago now! It covered the basics of HTML, and after about a week I was confident at writing up, and understanding, my very own website from scratch. I'm not sure this book is being published any more, so you might need to find something similar.

CSS
I taught myself CSS from practice, tutorials and articles online, but I have, and highly recommend the following CSS reference book: The Ultimate CSS Reference

Javascript
Javascript - The Definitive Guide - The book on Javascript. It covers absolutely everything you could possibly want to know, and it is heavy to boot!

Javascript Phrasebook - Tiny book, packed full of snippets of code for various problems.

PHP/MySQL
PHP and MySQL for Dynamic Web Sites - This was my first book on PHP, and it lays the groundwork for you to create some simple scripts, using databases.

PHP & MySQL Bible - Extremely thick book, covers most of PHP. Is a great reference book.

PHP Cookbook - Packed to the brim with excellent and useful snippets of code, for common coding problems. I constantly find myself going back to this book for advice.

PHP Phrasebook - Tiny little book, full of snippets of code. It's a great thing to keep at arms reach.

MySQL Phrasebook - Same as above, but covering MySQL.

PHP 5 Objects, Patterns, and Practice - This is quite a complex and laborious read, but it will help you step into more advanced coding practices, such as Object Oriented Programming (OOP), and Patterns.

Web development practices
Pragmatic Version Control Using Subversion - This is a must if you want to get serious with web development. Version control is basically a history of everything you've done, which allows you to revert back to things you've done in the past, which in turn acts as a great backup tool. Think Apple Time Machine, but for text/programming files.


I could recommend a tonne more; my bookshelf actually fell off once because of the amount of web development books! What I've suggested here will be more than adequate for beginning, though.

[petermoses]

Thanks for the list justin - I love to have books too, and have just bought The Principles of Beautiful Web Design. I'll let you know what I think when it gets here...

Meantime, I can suggest a book to avoid:
How to do everything with php & mysql - should be called 'how to make a shopping cart or simple cms with php mysql, in a poorly explained fashion'
I did learn the basics of php using this book, but it was badly thought out IMO, and thank god I got it from the library instead of buying it.

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A book I'd suggest is Bulletproof Web Design by Dan Cederholm. Not a big package, but quality over quantity. The book takes situations that every designer can face during a normal design process, and explains what is usually done wrong, then takes the right route to create it in the correct manner.

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[justinOrel]

(01-26-2011 01:20 PM)petermoses Wrote:  Thanks for the list justin - I love to have books too, and have just bought The Principles of Beautiful Web Design. I'll let you know what I think when it gets here...

Meantime, I can suggest a book to avoid:
How to do everything with php & mysql - should be called 'how to make a shopping cart or simple cms with php mysql, in a poorly explained fashion'
I did learn the basics of php using this book, but it was badly thought out IMO, and thank god I got it from the library instead of buying it.

---

A book I'd suggest is Bulletproof Web Design by Dan Cederholm. Not a big package, but quality over quantity. The book takes situations that every designer can face during a normal design process, and explains what is usually done wrong, then takes the right route to create it in the correct manner.

---

That book is on my Amazon wishlist, I'll hopefully be buying it soon.

[petermoses]

I recently bought 2 books to get me started: "Collins - How to create a Website" (£10.99) and the big "9-in-1 Web Design for Dummies" (£22.99)

The small collins book was great, it was small enough for me to carry and read on the train to work and everything was explained in an easy to understand step by step way. It didn't delve into too much detail but taught the basics of html & css. Also providing info on how to make the most of your site, visuals and content etc.

The huge 400+ pages of the Dummies book provides an awful lot of info, but it's hard to know where to start. It will be handy when I start to learn scripting as the smaller book doesn't touch on it and when I start studying it will make a great reference book.

[dianna]

Of all the good books, I think you've missed SmashingMagazine, a collection of articles that came from best and well-known web designer.

[sofia20]

This is such a great list Justin.
Interesting and indeed a big help.
Keep it up!

[awsrumana]

Thanks for sharing this information with us........