Web Design Books: Recent Acquisitions | August 25, 2006

I recently bought a bunch of web design books from Amazon.com, and got a load more sent to me by my publishers. Despite the fact that I enjoy reading web related books, I never seem to have the time these days. However with the books starting to pile up, I need to get them off the shelf and into my head as soon as possible.

Here is my current reading list. What is yours?

Posted at August 25, 2006 8:54 AM

Comments

Ian Lloyd said on August 25, 2006 8:11 AM

Oh, that’s me through and through - piles of books and no time to read. I also have Ambient Findability, bought at SXSW but still on the shelf waiting to be read, as well as JavaScript Anthology. Jakob’s new book is on the way from Amazon, Head First Design Patterns is also waiting to be read as is the new accessibility book from Friends of Ed. I get these things with all good intentions! Old father time is a real mofo who needs teaching a lesson, I tells yer.

Dominic Mitchell said on August 25, 2006 8:13 AM

I suspect that there isn’t much intersection between my reading list and yours, but one thing that might be is the JavaScript: The Definitive Guide, Fifth Edition. When you need to know about JavaScript, it’s the best reference out there.

Phil Pickering said on August 25, 2006 9:53 AM

Lots of good-looking new books out this year, with some more on the horizon :)

Just read:

Build Your Own Web Site the Right Way by Ian Lloyd (SitePoint)
Excellent book for beginners and people like me who are unlearning all the bad stuff ;)

Sitting on desk:

HTML Utopia, 2nd Ed by Rachel Andrew (SitePoint)
Web Accessibility by Jim Thatcher, et al (FriendsOfEd)
Blog Design Solutions by Andy Budd, et al (FriendsOfEd)
Designing with Web Standards, 2nd Ed by Jeffrey Zeldman (New Riders)
Beginning JavaScript by Christian Heilmann (Apress)

Just ordered:

Beginning CSS Web Development by Simon Collison (Apress)

Waiting for:

Transcending CSS by Andy Clarke (New Riders)
PHP Solutions by David Powers (FriendsOfEd)
HTML Mastery by Paul Haine (FriendsOfEd)
Pro CSS Techniques by Jeff Croft (Apress)
XHTML and CSS by Patrick Griffiths (New Riders)

Kevin said on August 25, 2006 12:07 PM

I just finished the new Jakob Nielsen book and actually quite liked it. Like Andy said, the guy makes a lot of sense.

Nate K said on August 25, 2006 2:01 PM

Looks like a great list of books. I have placed them in my wish list for later review. I have read the following lately:

Professional PHP5 by Edward Lecky-Thompson
Mastering Regular Expressions (they just put out the third edition devoting more pages to PHP) by Jeffrey Friedl
PHP Security by Chris Shiflett
CSS Mastery by Andy Budd
Bulletproof Web Design by Dan Cederholm
Dont Make Me Think by Steve Krugg
Prioritizing Web Usability by Jakob Nielsen

And, 2 more just came in the mail:
DOM Scripting by Jeremy Keith
DHTML Utopia by Stuart Langridge

Up next month:
Beginning CSS Web Development by Simon Collison
Pro CSS Techniques by Jeff Croft

Thanks for sharing your list Andy, I am definitely going to check those out in more detail.

Cameron Adams said on August 25, 2006 3:07 PM

I gave up on Jakob Nielsen when he just began regurgitating the same words from 1998. I mean, seriously, does the guy say anything you don’t already know?

Nate K said on August 25, 2006 3:33 PM

RE: Cameron
Though I still have a few more chapters - I would have to say it all seems to be repetitive to me. I can’t say I have learned anything ‘new’ from his book, but I do appreciate his insight and screen examples.

He is one of those guys that can really get under the skin, but on the flipside is very valuable with his research and reports (and emails).

Steve said on August 26, 2006 6:06 PM

Hi there.
Does anyone know any good books on XML. Pref a beginer one.
Any help will do.
Cheers.
Steve*

James Wright said on August 27, 2006 9:57 PM

It would be interesting to know how you rate the book “Beginning Javascript with DOM Scripting and Ajax: From Novice to Professional”. Maybe we can benefit from your experience. Thanks for the list nonetheless.

Jim said on August 28, 2006 10:20 AM

My problem with web design books is that there’s too much books, each one claims being the ultimate reference. So thank you for recommending few ones at your own guarantee to chose from.

Andy C said on August 29, 2006 11:52 AM

Just finished Krugs ‘Don’t Make Me Think’, and Edward Tufte’s ‘Visual Explanations’ I highly recommend at least checking out of the library Tufte’s works. For anyone in the web field we are always trying to refactor data and make it presentable and this guy has the zen even if you feel sometimes you’re swallowing high level math. While I think it’s important to understand all your CSS and ways to make things nice if you don’t know how to build information that can be consumed or related to, you’ll have lost before you begin.

Krug’s book though is even now beginning to date itself (wow thats fast). Borrow it at this point, good UI decision making but not perma-shelf worthy.

Next on my list is Luke Wroblewski’s ‘Site Seeing’, which I am way behind on reading.

-a

ps.. I had links all in here but your blog kept kicking out “Your comment was denied for questionable content.” Boo.

Tim Reader said on August 30, 2006 10:38 AM

The new Sitepoint Ajax book is one of many on my reading list. Has anyone read it yet? I wasn’t blown away by the sample chapters but bought it anyway.

Also, I find it quite difficult keeping my concentration on JavaScript books - not sure why.

My concentration tailed off in the JavaScript Anthology, though I did learn some useful stuff from DHTML Utopia (Stuart Langridge).

Andy - I’m guessing you’ve read Jeremy Keith’s book on the same topic(s)? Can anyone offer a comparison between this and the JS Anthology? Would I be better off with Jeremy’s book?

Thom Shannon said on August 30, 2006 1:31 PM

I barely have enough time to keep on top of all the blogs I want to read, let alone books. Although I should probably take a little more timeout away from the screen.

Mark UK said on August 30, 2006 2:28 PM

I’ve just finished Jackob’s Prioritizing Web Usability as well.

It was better than his first book (which was still good) IMHO as he backs everything up with proper stats and the like this time. Another improvement is that the rather ironic usability problems that existed in the layout of the first book (e.g. comments about images that were not on view) have gone.

I still came away with the annoying feeling that I’ve just read an extended advert for his over priced consultancy service though (he plugs it on every other page).

… oh and lukcy the ego maniac didn’t mention his “skulls” gimmic for a 101st time or I’d have exploded.