24 November 2009
Books that Inspire
Yesterday I had the pleasure of sitting at the back of “Handcrafted CSS“, a workshop led by Dan Cederholm and Ethan Marcotte. The workshop was based on their recently published book of the same name, if you don’t own a copy definitely add it to your holiday shopping list.
As attendees leafed through the book during the breaks I realised how much of I have relied on and enjoyed learning about web design and development from books. Funnily enough Dan’s first book, “Web Standard Solutions“, released in 2004 was the the first book I ever bought on CSS. It turns out it was the first CSS book for many designers I know. It taught me a lot and is still very relevant.
It got me thinking about the most inspiring web related books I have on my shelf. Here in no particular order are my personal top five. Some of them have been updated and superseded but all remain great reference material.
- Web Standard Solutions by Dan Cederholm
- Transcending CSS by Andy Clarke
- The PHP Anthology by Harry Fuecks et al (1st edition no longer available)
- The Definitive Guide to Django by Adrian Holovaty and Jacob Kaplan-Moss
- DOM Scripting by Jeremey Keith
What are your favourites? Link up your must have’s in the comments, I have an Amazon voucher I need to spend and love a good read.
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Glenn Weatherson
# November 25, 2009 - 5:15 am
Peachpit/New Riders usually doesn’t disappoint me with their releases, especially Handcrafted CSS. Great list, great resources.
Joseph McLaughlin
# November 25, 2009 - 5:27 am
I’ve really enjoyed reading Design Patterns in Ruby. Very inspiring book, I’ve read it several times.
Steven Tan
# November 25, 2009 - 8:25 am
The book that really inspires me when I was first venturing into web standards is “The Art & Science of Web Design” by Jeffrey Veen .
It’s an oldie but goodie.
doggifts
# November 29, 2009 - 12:39 pm
really agree with you…keep it up!
Paul Campbell
# November 25, 2009 - 8:31 am
A couple:
“Don’t make me think” by Steve Krug: http://www.amazon.com/Think-Common-Sense-Approach-Usability/dp/0789723107
And if you programme – and absolute classic: Domain Driven Design by Eric Evans… a big one, but surely a must read:
http://www.amazon.com/Domain-Driven-Design-Tackling-Complexity-Software/dp/0321125215
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# November 25, 2009 - 8:38 am
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lee
# November 25, 2009 - 8:38 am
css mastery (vol 2), good to have a refresh of best practices.
Joel Hughes
# November 25, 2009 - 10:40 am
For JavaScript: Douglas Crockford’s “the good parts” is invaluable http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596517748
It provides a concise but infinitely useful insight into how the language works and should be used (JS needs to be taken more seriously and this books is a great start point and reference)
Ian
# November 25, 2009 - 10:46 am
I’d strongly suggest checking out “CouchDB: The Definitive Guide” by J. Chris Anderson; Jan Lehnardt and Noah Slater.
If you can’t wait for the print version to become available it’s already available to read for free online http://books.couchdb.org/relax/.
woodboiler23
# November 25, 2009 - 12:22 pm
I love that book.
wood boiler
prisca
# November 25, 2009 - 1:11 pm
surprised no one has added this yet – the one & only :)
Designing with webstandards – Jeffrey Zeldman
First book I bought on webdesign – was the one which changed my view and made me *want* to learn handcoding. This book, Jeffrey and Eric gave me my career :)
Keir Whitaker
# November 25, 2009 - 4:29 pm
Great point. For some reason I never picked this up, shameful really.
woodchip14
# November 25, 2009 - 1:14 pm
Cost of the book?
wood chip boilers
webalista
# November 25, 2009 - 2:04 pm
Its my birthday next Friday so have emailed these titles to ‘da’ missus as gentle reminders of what she should be buying me, and not a pair of joke socks.
The wench.
billygoat
# November 25, 2009 - 4:34 pm
I learned standards-compliant design from this book:
Learning Web Design: A Beginner’s Guide to (X)HTML, StyleSheets, and Web Graphics by Jennifer Niederst Robbins and Aaron Gustafson
I was just tooling around with tag soup before this book. It really drove home the reasons for using standards and weaned me away from Dreamweaver to hand-coding as well. It may be a little bit on the dry side, but makes up for it by being very clear and logically thought-out. I still go to this book as a reference.
Dan Tarrant
# November 25, 2009 - 9:16 pm
I would recommend Gary Vaynerchuk’s Crush It!. But I think you guys are crushing it already really.
Zoe Gillenwater
# November 26, 2009 - 2:02 pm
I second the CSS Mastery recommendation, and Bulletproof CSS. I’m currently reading the Sitepoint JavaScript book and like it so far.
I happen to think my book, Flexible Web Design: Creating Liquid and Elastic Layouts with CSS, is quite good. :-) Andy Clarke and Jeremy Keith, both authors on your top-five, have read my book and recommended it on their blogs/Twitter.
kurrent
# November 26, 2009 - 7:04 pm
Putting my vote in for CSS: The Missing Manual by David McFarland. It’s the one book that really gave me my “a-ha” breakthrough moment in understanding CSS.
Mark Jackson
# November 26, 2009 - 8:24 pm
The Crystal Goblet: Beatrice Ward
gabicruz
# November 27, 2009 - 6:05 am
Thanks for the article it really helps.
Air Source Heat Pump
web designing Vancouver
# November 28, 2009 - 9:44 am
You have a very nice title “think vitamin”. Really sounds good as well as your description is also very informative.
channel03
# November 29, 2009 - 12:36 pm
simply love reading it so inspiring….
brdlcross6
# November 30, 2009 - 6:35 am
i love reading inspirational books. thanks for the great info guys
mosstravis74
# November 30, 2009 - 6:36 am
inspirational books are amazing
derekmann35
# November 30, 2009 - 9:23 am
i love inspiring books
jffrsnts797
# November 30, 2009 - 9:53 am
wanna try all ur suggestions. i really love and enjoy reading inspirational books
Nicolas Jimenez
# November 30, 2009 - 11:12 am
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chrismiles86
# November 30, 2009 - 1:26 pm
reading an inspirational books is not a waste of time but its a learning and help us motivates in life.
frankillbil
# November 30, 2009 - 1:50 pm
love old inspirational books
georgesutton4
# November 30, 2009 - 2:29 pm
reading an inspirational book is a good hobby
maxwell382
# November 30, 2009 - 3:26 pm
i like inspiring books
peytonobrien
# November 30, 2009 - 3:46 pm
i become more motivated and inspired in doing things with the help of inspirational books
daltrodg54
# December 1, 2009 - 3:32 am
inspiring books are amazing
ericknewton47
# December 2, 2009 - 4:38 am
i love collecting inspirational books
erikingram98ericknewton47
# December 3, 2009 - 11:47 am
im planning to buy a new inspirational books this weekend : )
Gry dla dziewczyn
# December 5, 2009 - 1:18 am
Ya, I’m interesting about the cost
Bonzaga
# December 6, 2009 - 3:12 pm
I Love Web Standard Solutions witten by Dan Cederholm
Yolanda
# December 6, 2009 - 3:14 pm
I havent read those books, i prefer to read novel actually. I’m not a IT type person
Nancy Growe
# December 29, 2009 - 5:19 am
Reading well is one of the great pleasures that solitude can afford you.
Brian
# February 9, 2010 - 10:17 pm
Can you recommend a great book for those of us with little HTML and no CSS?