search

wesbos / ama

Ask me anything!
281 stars 30 forks source link

Best books for learning JavaScript #61

Closed lalwanivikas closed 8 years ago

lalwanivikas commented 8 years ago

Hello Wes!

Loved your reply here that the best way to learn JS is to make 1000 little things. But I believe sometimes reading good books also helps in getting the fundamentals right. So just wanted to know if there are any great books for learning JavaScript or general front-end dev that you would recommend?

Books advice on any level (beginner/intermediate/advanced) are welcome :) Thanks!

wesbos commented 8 years ago

Good question - there are so many good ones out there. I personally find watching video tutorials works better for me.

As far as books go, when I started I read JavaScript the Good Parts and Stoyan Stefanov's Javascript Patterns - they were both pretty big for me. I've heard from a lot of our students at HackerYou that JavaScript the good parts isn't a great introduction to JS, but better read once you grasp the basics.

Right now I'm absolutely loving Exploring ES6 by @rauschma - it's a really indepth look at at the pieces of ES6.

I've heard lots of people enjoy @getify's YDKJS → https://github.com/getify/You-Dont-Know-JS

Past that I can't really chime in too much about books, so I'm going to open this up to anyone else who has a recommendation.

Anyone?

johndhancock commented 8 years ago

Javascript and Jquery, by Jon Duckett

http://www.amazon.com/JavaScript-JQuery-Interactive-Front-End-Development/dp/1118531647

wesbos commented 8 years ago

Ah yes - lots of my students LOVE that one. It's incredibly well laid out.

michaelryancaputo commented 8 years ago

Been enjoying JavaScript with Promises - http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920032151.do - but is obviouly a very specific subject.

atuttle commented 8 years ago

JavaScript: The Good Parts was transformative for me. It's small enough that even people that generally don't learn well from books (i.e. me) can get through it without losing motivation/momentum, and it's jam-packed with goodness.

http://amzn.com/B0026OR2ZY

davemo commented 8 years ago

This isn't a book but I found most of the knowledge from "JavaScript the Good Parts" was much easier to understand on YUI Theater back in the day. They've since moved all of their videos to YouTube but this playlist titled Crockford on JavaScript is fantastic!

ghost commented 8 years ago

It may be a little silly, and I'm not a 'kid', but JavaScript for Kids was EXCELLENT. Great introduction to basic concepts that other more advanced books tend to over-explain.

http://www.amazon.com/JavaScript-Kids-Playful-Introduction-Programming/dp/1593274084

atom-morgan commented 8 years ago

Two of my favorites: Single Page Web Applications: JavaScript end-to-end and The Principles of Object-Oriented JavaScript. I'm still working my way through the YDKJS series but that's also looking to be great.

mindcrash commented 8 years ago

Eloquent JavaScript by Marijn Haverbeke

garmjs commented 8 years ago

My favorites

DOM

Animation

dydx commented 8 years ago

Any love for Reginald Braithwaite's books?

I got a lot of mileage from Spessore and Allonge

ldong commented 8 years ago

I definitely recommend all mid-level developers to advance their skills by reading Pro JavaScript Techniques by @jeresig

swennemans commented 8 years ago

Not JS specific but Exercises for Programmers could be very helpful. For me with just reading books it never clicks. I can have the illusion that I understand it, until I have to apply it in the correct situation. What I need it exercises but I can be an easy trap to solve the same type of problem over and over again (for example UI related stuff). This book offers a diversion in exercises that can be extremely helpful. It makes you reread the chapters of your programming book(s) of choice.

Plus it has a ton of replay value for every new language you want to learn in the future, or known language you want to improve.

wesbos commented 8 years ago

Wow - thanks everyone. Some fantastic suggestions in here - a few I want to now read myself!